reflecting, breathing, and planning

Using this post to take a moment to reflect and breath before jumping into developing the social media more and everything else. The movie's done. It's a bit surreal how it kinda just ended up being finished. Like wow that was fairly anticlimactic. I've shown it to a few people so far including everyone who helped work on it and they all thought it was good, so that's good. I am feeling a strange sense of imposter syndrome where I don't think it is as good as people say it is but hey whatever. I think it turned out pretty swell. If I could go back and change things, I think I would have liked to cast someone else as The Protagonist. That way I can have more of a presence behind the camera than I actually did and, to be frank, I don't think I did the best job playing the character haha. I think it was really just cause of how demanding the shooting day was, to get through everything in a very limited time span. That's another thing, maybe I should have picked a day that was more free, but then again my hands were tied and it was kind of out of my control. I had fun overall. It was a good experience to have an idea, develop it, and actually make it. Job's not finished though, gotta do everything else now. No pressure really, hopefully. It's all due in a little over a week, 15-25 more social media posts and a 1000 word essay and a postcard, no pressure.

The postcard I will develop completely this week, I already took the photos for it on shooting day because I am so good at everything I do all the time. I'm thinking the front will be Jim and Cricket with the back being the Protagonist but we'll see. For the social media posts, I want to do more pictures of behind the scenes on set day before going into short trailers/teasers and press interviews/videos from the cast and crew (crew really only being me. I'm in the cast as well actually). And that'll pretty much be it. If I do end up filming some stuff with the cast I'll try to get it all done over this last weekend since that'll be the only time to do so. And the essay will probably be simple to do since I'm so ingrained into this film and have been talking about it for about a month, doing that more should be easy enough haha. And that's it! Finishing developing everything this week, see ya then.

editing day 2

 More frustrating than the last one that's for sure. I was right when I said audio would be less straightforward, this part had some kick to it. I wanted the film to open with a black screen, the sound of the heartbeat is overlaid with the sound of a timer, then the heartbeat stops as the timer continues. I think it's a cool idea that immediately just establishes a centerpiece of the film. At first the timer was more of a clock ticking but I changed to more of a kitchen timer sound later on. Did this so the sound is actually a timer instead of the ticking of some watch or clock.

A large struggle was avoiding complete silence and always having some sort of ambience playing, the absence of ambience would be super jarring so I always made sure to keep some noise on at all times. There wasn't much Foley to do since a majority of the film's audio is just dialogue with some sound effects here and there (mostly the timer and the heartbeat), additionally a lot of diegetic sound effects were picked up during filming so that spared me some blood, sweat, and tears today. There was one scene that needed a lot of Foley to pull off and that is the montage sequence of the Protagonist rotting in his room before Cricket and Jim arrive. First thing I added to this sequence was the diegetic sound of keyboard typing, mouse clicking, and audio from the phone, but I knew it would not be enough. I needed some sort of nondiegetic audio to be played in the cuts and throughout. That's when the idea came to me to use wind sound effects to emphasize the emptiness of the sequence. It's so devoid of life, the sound of wind really helps emphasize this so that was a great idea by me good job me. I also added a fly buzzing sound effect when it cuts to the rotten apple. This sequence was mainly inspired by Edgar Wright's style of quick cuts in a montage sequence (here's two videos showing what I mean, from The World's End  and Shaun of the Dead). Though, looking back, I should have reviewed how he does it more closely since he uses zooms while I did not at all. Mine still turned out swell anyways I think.

Audio was pretty straightforward until the scene of the protagonist looking at his body being carried. This. Damn. Scene. I had no clue what to do for the audio. At first I thought I'd put some guitar over it as nondiegetic track but no matter how many variations of guitar I would play and put over it, it just wouldn't fit. This took so long. I could not crack the code. After God knows how many hours, I watched the scene in silence, no audio, then realized that it works fine with no soundtrack. ughibfdjk,b. Cool. I put the same wind sound effect over it to really give it that dreadful feeling of being dead and reflecting on your life. Then came the crawling scene and once again I was met with the realization that this scene needed a soundtrack over it. This one actually needed it by the way it didn't really work too well with just diegetic sound. So I played my guitar over and over and over until I got one chord progression that I liked and boom! It kind just worked. Yay! For the credits, I adjusted the progression a bit and played it differently and bam! It worked! Yay! I am so tired! I'm gonna go get peer reviewed. Goodbye.

editing day 1

 Sat my butt down and decided to do a majority of the editing today and save all the audio work for tomorrow. Really straightforward day to be frank, I started editing at around 3PM and finished around 8. Long, yea, but straightforward. Did make some changes during editing, like cutting the Protagonist's line about his eye being infected. It was a cute character moment but it felt out of place and due to how shooting day turned out, the cutting between the Protagonist and Cricket and Jim was too jarring due to the lighting differences. So just cut it out all together and saved some more time. 

I made the film's aspect ratio 4:3, it's not only a style/aesthetic decision but also serves the purpose of the eyepatch, representing the Protagonist's narrow view on life. I was gonna have it change to a standard aspect ratio once he revives himself but it looked too jarring to make a change like that while everything else production wise remains the same so I decided against it, but who knows I might go back on this eventually. Also I had mentioned wanting to use color correction to correct the difference in color (no way right) and lighting between certain shots but I realized that this is pretty much impossible for the most part. The issue is the lighting itself, it's too different between the shots so color correcting wouldn't do much to fix it. Still, color correction may help in some cases so I do think I'll try to do that when I have access to Premiere. 

One really not straightforward thing I did was the Parent Trap / Liv & Maddie split twin effect thing. I wanted a shot of the Protagonist looking at his body while both himself and his body are in the same shot and I knew about this editing trick where you keep the same shot exactly the same and still while shooting two parts of a scene, one with each double person. I don't know if that makes sense. Basically you shoot the scene twice for each twin and then splice the shot down the middle so you can have both in the same frame. And somehow I managed to do it. I am reasonably proud. Shot composition was kinda scuffed thought so I’m not entirely in the frame unfortunately but still cool!

Used the same font for the credits as I did for the business card and yeah that's pretty much it. Like I said, super straightforward. Audio will not be as straightforward but I'll get to that tomorrow.

redirect!

 I tried downloading premiere pro on my home computer so I could get all the editing done before going back to school after break but wouldn’t you know my computer does not have enough space for premiere. It’s a bit old so I didn’t think it was possible to clear up space and I honestly took it as a blessing in disguise. I’m out of my area of expertise using premiere and it would’ve been just too much to learn in too little time so I decided to redirect to editing on CapCut on my phone. Is it the best editing software? God no. Is it dependable? I think so and I actually know how to use it. I still may end up using premiere for any fancier editing I need to do, like color correction and all that. But as of right now I’m editing the whole thing on CapCut. Got a bit of the film down and it’s not turning out too bad! Placing everything where it needs to be now then I’ll work more on audio stuff. Not home at the moment nor do I have a lot of time to work on this till later in the week so that’s when I’ll do that.

i dont know how to use adobe

 I tried to get some editing in during class before break since I want to edit everything during the break, and almost immediately I realized I’m not 100% sure what I’m doing on Premier Pro. I usually just use CapCut on my phone to edit everything and I know Pro is what you’re supposed to use and it’s one of the best editing software out there but I just never could get into it. Anyway I got a few seconds into the film while editing before class ended and right when I saved the project I got hit with the red media not found screen so the whole project practically went into the can.

I don’t know what I even did wrooooongggggg… I’m gonna try editing again at home and I’ll watch some videos to be extra sure I know what I’m doing. It’s not like I don’t I’d just like to know more. Hopefully I don’t have to pivot and switch editing softwares or anything but yeah. Finishing editing this week and next week then focusing heavily on print and social media.

filming. 8 hour work day, no pay

 Filmed everything. EVERYTHING. I am so tired. My legs hurt. I am so tired. 

Started the day off by filming the montage of the Protagonist rotting in his room by myself, it went well, got everything I needed. Then I had stomach pain out of no where that I really just balled through. I made that fake blood thing, I used corn starch, flour, red food coloring, and blue food coloring then mixed them all together and it turned out super amazing. I did not expect it to turn out that well but it did! Got the blood recipe from this video on YouTube. I lathered a part of the hoodie in blood since that is where Cricket and Jim ripped out his heart from. I would put the blood in my mouth and spit it out later on.

Then my cast and crew started showing up at around 1:45 and everyone got here at 2:10ish. I gave Luis, who played Jim, a blazer and Ayami, playing Cricket, a tie and then I showed everyone what we were doing and how to handle the equipment. And then we kinda just started! Got through everything rather efficiently. I wanted to be done by 6 since Ayami and Ale, camera operator, had to leave at 6, so to be sure we got everything with Cricket and Jim, we skipped over some scenes to shoot later. Eventually, Ayami and Ale had to leave, which left me, Luis, and Julien (sound then camera operator) to do everything else. What was left over was more than I expected but it wasn't too bad, though because we shot later in the day, the lighting changed which will be weird to cut from different lighting to different lighting in-between each shot, so that majorly sucks. Maybe I can color correct later on but who knows. Reshoots are possible but they are not something I particularly want to do, just something to keep in mind just in case. 

Pictures from the shoot day :D

(Would have gotten a haircut before filming but there wasn't any space :cry:)

Finished around 8 which was way later than I wanted to finish, I was very very tired. Looking back, the major issue was the time constraints since many shots HAD to be done before a specific time. This led to some confusion on what still had to be filmed and continuity errors. Now that I'm more knowledgeable on how long this type of stuff takes to film, in the future I will plan more accordingly haha. Also to avoid confusion, I think I should have made a shot list. I was using the storyboards as a take-off point on what we had to film but it was often difficult to navigate. Shot list really would have helped, that's a short-sight on my part, I was in over my head. But it was a successful shoot day for sure, I just I filmed everything and didn't forget something because THAT would SUCK! This is not foreshadowing. 

final pre-production (and production day one? kinda?)

Filming Tomorrow!! Ah! Today I wanted to get the set ready and I did. I pretty much just trashed my room to a reasonable extent. Didnt take much time I think that says someting but Im ignoring it right now. I wanted to make sure the room looked not taken care of at all, books are unorganized, clothing on the floor, extremly messy desk you get it. I also didn't want to go too far, like hanging a shirt of the ceiling fan too far, because that would make it look less dumpy and more like the aftermath of a movie house party. I also tried removing any mark of a hobby in my room since the Protagonist really wouldnt have any. A guy with no aspirations wouldnt have aspirations or spend his time valuably and all that. Point is: set is done, trashed my room I made a little timelapse of me doing so and put the king of the hill theme over it because Im hilarious and everyone agrees.

Also a photo of the room after. I forgot to take a before. Whoops.

After this I was pretty much done until tomorrow, but then I remembered that I could totally film the part where the Protagonist reflects on his life today. Score. The idea I got for this sequence is from a montage from The Bear where actual childhood photos of the actress is shown, I remember that concept coming to me during the brainstorming process and I found great use for it here. To film the scene I got childhood photos of myself and filmed them. That is it, very straightforward. I was originally going to shoot them on a plain wooden desk but I thought it didn't look quite the way I wanted it to so I got a blank shirt and just used that instead! Also good practice for using the BECON equipment.

Im all set for tomorrow! Still a mix of anxiety and excitement! Hope it turns out good! Need it to turn out good! Kay bye!

pre-est production

 I went to pick up production equipment from BECON (mentioned them earlier) on Monday and they gave me the deadline of returning the equipment on next weekend. So. I am definitely filming everything this weekend. The original actor for Jim (Graesen) is unavailable this weekend, so I do have a back-up person (actually two back-up people) to play the character if I can't find a good alternative by Saturday. All things considered, the role will probably end up being played by one of these people, which I'm okay with, they can definitely do it.

Anyway, I got a bunch of equipment from BECON: Camera, tripod, lighting, and a boom mic are the main ones. I'm very lucky to have this equipment for free, like I can't overstate that this I am insanely fortunate. I'm planning on giving them a "Special Thanks" in the credits. 

BECON equipment

The plan at the moment is to shoot the film on Saturday, starting early around 2PM, and there will be around 5 people on set, 3 cast and 2 crew. I'll start setting everything up on Friday, specifically set design. That'll be its own blog post but the plan is to make the place a slob-mess-slob with clothes and trash everywhere. Everything's pretty much ready except that, props are all here, cast and crew are on standby, doing pretty swell right now. I am feeling a mix of excitement and anxiety which is normal. Not much to do until Friday, so I'll see you then..... Goodbye........

postcard research

 Getting some research in for my postcard early on. When I look up film festival postcard examples 90% are other media projects while 9% are templates, I'm avoiding analyzing either.

URBANIA:

The front of Urbania's postcard is super engaging, especially the emphasized image surrounded by a full black background. The title's red and huge text also emphasize it, making it eye-catching and clear that it is the title. I like the tagline placed right under the title, although I know it's not a requirement, it continues to advertise the film in a simple way. If I were to include a tagline in mine, I have to make sure its role as a tagline is apparent through its position to the title and to avoid it taking up too much space. The postcard also includes a quote of a review and production credits, neither of which will be included in mine, but the age-rating and festival it is being shown in also seem interesting to me, I might include both when making mine. Which film festival it is being shown in will be included regardless, but I'm curious if I should include it in the front, back, or both. Just something to keep in mind when developing it. 

The back of Urbania's postcard is much, much less engaging than the front. It's blank.  The only things that represent the film is the bold title on the top left. I do like how the text is formatted, though. Having the names be all caps while their role is in standard capitalization is cool, like "A film by JON SHEAR." The back also has the branding of the postcard production company for some reason? At first I thought it related to the film but nope it's just the people who made the postcard. Urbania really failed on its back cover. It also has little lines on the bottom right that looks like people would write in, but I have no idea what they would even write there. Also where the film opens is super vague and not nearly as specific as it needs to be. "Opens Friday, September 8th in New York and Los Angeles" ??? Huh? Weird how the film festival isn't even mentioned here but it is on the front. I do like how the website is advertised and encourages audience interaction, "Hear any good stories lately? Share them at our website:" Overall, the postcard had some cool ideas I will definitely keep in mind when developing mine, but it really fell flat in a bunch of areas, especially the back.

WREN BOYS:

I was only able to find one side of a postcard for Wren Boys, there is other key art of the film but I'm not sure they are the back of the post-card. The image used for the post card isn't too bad, it features two characters and their faces and the composition paints an emptiness(?) between the two because of all the negative space. The title is large and apparent with the film festival it screened at also large and apparent. It does feature a hefty amount of production credits but that isn't necessary for mine. Honestly the card feels very empty, to me, it leaves a lot to be desired but that could have been intentional with the tone and themes of the film I'm not sure. Also the placement of the text feels off, there's a lot of empty space on the entire left side of the card, I think I would have placed the text there instead of on the bottom, I like how large the key art is though, especially in contrast to Urbania, Wren Boys' key art is to the point and just straight-up shows a shot of the film. I think I'll take inspiration from that and make my key art take up a majority of the card.

part 2 to the last one and storyboard

 Okay so, because of cast and equipment availability, shooting will now happen next week (hopefully). What really dictates this is the availability of a new Jim actor, since Graesen (the last one) is not available next week. If I do not have an available Jim alternative then uhhhh.. ****! (Idk if I can curse on here or not). Some props have come in already and they're great! I'm picking up equipment on Monday and in the meantime I'll look for a new Jim actor. Reflecting on my process now, I should have pre-planned production much sooner and effectively, contacting actors and finding a good shooting day should have been done much sooner instead of the week of or week before production starts. I'll keep this in mind in the future.

Also made the entire storyboard in two days because I assumed we might be shooting Saturday, so it is not good at all. All it really is is a rough outline for how the shots are going to look, but I plan to get much more creative during actual shoot day and plan them better in real time. Here it is (I recommend clicking on each one if you want to see it): 

During this week, I want to continue to develop my social media more heavily and begin researching the print aspect. Then, hopefully, production can start and finish by the end.

casting and props and scheduling and rescheduling (the many toils of short filming)

 This week I have been working on and off on getting everything ready for filming on Saturday(??? maybe. Getting to that). I asked my friend in this media class, Ale, to ask Graeson, her boyfriend, if he is up for playing Jim in the film, he said yes (THANK GOD) but during this discussion I confused them being available on a Saturday as this Saturday instead of next. You see, I wanted to film next Saturday, but in the confusion of the conversation, I thought that filming was only possible THIS Saturday. I find out today that filming was actually not very possible this Saturday but it is next Saturday. Cool. So original plan after all? Everything's cool? No. 

After Graseson was casted as Jim, I ordered all the props needed for the film on the same day. I ordered a prop heart, a grey hoodie, scalpels, latex gloves, and I sent the business cards to print (which have already arrived!) (Made a post on the social media and everything) (caption’s super clever too hehe) (“Not living the life you want? Maybe your heart’s not in it… #LifeandGo #LifeandGoDeptClinic”)

I looked for prop blood to buy but couldn't find any good options, every review I read said the blood either stained clothing heavily or skin or the floor and I don't want to make a mess. So, I decided I will be making my own blood following a video I found on YouTube. I'll be making a separate blog post where I describe the process in more detail and talk about whether I messed up or not. I expressed my want to make the short film high quality to a friend a few weeks ago and I was directed to BECON, where if I messaged their Instagram account, I would be able to check out some equipment since I'm a student and it's for a student project or something I don't fully understand it but point is I could get equipment. I messaged the account and was permitted to check out equipment for over the weekend but I had to return it by Monday. Problem now is: I'm not sure if the equipment is available for next weekend. I messaged the account again and they have not responded yet as I'm writing this. Either equipment is available next week and I can shoot next weekend or it is not and I ball my heart out and shoot everything this weekend. Christ. I'll figure it out fine, I'm not too worried... TOO worried.. a little worried. It'll be fine. 

I sent a message to a friend I made while teching a theater show a few weeks ago, Ayami, to see if she was up for playing Cricket and she was!! (THANK GOD) so now I have my full complete cast. Yay! Cause I'm playing the Protagonist. I don't think I mentioned that. Honestly, I don't know anyone who's miserable enough to play the character. Not like I'm miserable or anything I just know how to act miserable. Not a role that requires a lot of acting prowess I think. Anyway, if it were up to me I would find someone more suitable but I'm limited here. Opportunity sampling and all that.

script

 Script is done! May make a few edits after this post but it's basically done. I had my friends Ale and Gabi read through it and give notes and they liked it so that's good. The only notes I got was that the exposition dump was very exposition dump-y, but given the time constraints I really couldn't do too much about that. The script is long, I know that, but it isn't reflective of the film's actual time limit. A lot of the script is devoted to descriptions and feelings of scenes that I want to make sure to capture. Also adding a space in-between each line gave me an extra two pages haha. I am and will be doing my damndest (is that a word?) to make sure the film is five minutes. Honestly I don't want it to exceed at all, I think the piece works and flows much better if its short and conforms to the five minute rule. Doing more would make it much more convulated than it needs to be and I don't want that at all.

Anyway, THE LIFE & GO DEPT. CLINIC script

group meeting 1

 We had a group meeting in class with other students working on their portfolio, but everyone in my group was doing documentaries so... I didn't get too much help out of it haha. Also means I couldn't help them as much as I should have or wanted to. I did recommend a title for my friend Gabi for her doc about queer youth. I suggested We Are Young cause it's a cool title and a reference to a cool song. 

I shared the entire idea for my project without getting into deep specifics, I didn't want to spend so much time on mine when we had a few to get through. If we had infinite time I would've asked them to review my script. I did get more assurance on my concept and was pointed in the direction of approaching the film as more of a comedy than any other genre, which I was keeping in mind and it does make sense. The Life & Go Dept. Clinic is a very out there idea, to approach it in any serious manner (especially in 5 minutes) would be too difficult and cluttered to really develop and flesh out. I'm now approaching it as a more comedic film with an honest theme/message behind it, and I think that's a good slight shift of mindset. The concept in itself is fairly comedic, especially the idea of doing tasks on a list while crawling to your ripped out heart, so that's good. Script is done I'm just waiting on peer review before I post it on here, but I will also make sure that the dialogue is more comedic. This makes The Nice Guys more of a production to take after since it is a comedy about two guys (woah. it's like I'm making a kinda comedy about two guys kinda). Group meeting helped me center my whole genre better which is good!

character development/background

 I wanted to do a quick post on the characters specifically before polishing the script and putting it up on here!!

THE PROTAGONIST:

About 18 years old, The Protagonist is unemployed (obviously) and spend his day to day doing nothing except consuming media and wallowing in self pity. "Woe is me" is the most commonly repeated phrase in his head despite not knowing what woe means. Currently, he is the victim of an eye infection which explains his eyepatch, a not so subtle symbol for his narrowed vision on life. He believes himself incapable of living or doing anything, it simply isn't in him to do so. He is a spectator of his life and the lives of others. He never changes so nothing ever changes for him. His life has been the same for years, and he does everything in his power to excuse himself from blame and nothing else. Sometimes he thinks about calling his grandma, but he never does. He thinks about doing a lot of things, big and small, but he never does. He is sad and pathetic. His favorite movies are Akira because he likes the visuals and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind because he relates to the main character. He listens to The Smiths, Radiohead, and Current Joys (cause he's a loser) (joke) (sorry). It takes his heart being removed and dying to push him to reality and to start living his life. Good job champ.  

JIM:

Employee at the LIFE & GO DEPT. CLINIC, has a habit of calling the clients old sport because he read The Great Gatsby twice and it stuck. He likes to read, prefers it over movies and TV. Does have a slight superiority complex about it. Has a slight superiority complex about most things. Cricket is the only co-worker he really gets along with. Joined the company after his mother passed away, she was an addict and always refused help. He joined as a means for purpose, to help people who are see themselves as helpless, to help them to the extreme whether they like it or not. The morals or ethics of the job are up to debate. He likes to help through the job, so whenever a client fails and dies, it hits him hard. A part of him does hold resentment for the clients, to act so helpless when a majority of the time they have not experienced a relentless life like he has. They haven't experienced the disparity and helplessness of life but they still act so mopey, it can really build a resentment in him. He wishes the company would do more to help them, so he has discussed with Cricket many times about staying with the clients and guiding them through completing the list. Cricket knows better though, Cricket knows the principle of it is to let them do things themselves. Jim still feels heartaches about it from time to time. Of course none of this would be in the actual short film, it's just additional background stuff. Yay. His favorite books are The Thin Man and The Great Gatsby. He listens to Nirvana and those 50's silk-voiced singers like Frank Sinatra (he has a fascination with the time period). (I only have one concept sketch of him that's good but it feels weird to have one image so. yeah).

 

CRICKET:

Employee at the LIFE & GO DEPT. CLINIC. Joined the company for the paycheck, jumping from job to job y'know how it is. Does do the work, puts in the effort, understands the job, and gets paid handsomely for it. They could honestly be whatever gender: boy, girl, etc. anything works for Cricket, they're just a dude trying to get paid. They've always been interested in space and its cosmos, if they could pick any job it would be whatever the hell Galileo was up to that made him discover all that space stuff, the necessary math included. Cricket's best subject is math, probably not Galileo level but still good. They have a pet cat named Jupiter and a goldfish named NASA. In their free time, Cricket likes to go to the cinema, alone or not doesn't matter to them, and paint. They usually paint landscapes, they're not very good but it's a nice thing to do. Likes cocktails. The feeling they have about the clients is like the feeling you have about stray cats. You feel bad, you hope they get food and shelter but you know you can't really take them home for a multitude of reasons. So you give them some food and wish them luck and bid them farewell. The clients, to them, is a mix of passing kindness and apathy. Whether they complete the list and live or don't and die, doesn't really matter to them morally. It was on them to make a change, and they didn't so, yeah. They do prefer when they live though cause that means more of a chance of a bonus. Jim has more of an attachment and feeling for the clients, Cricket understands its just a part of the job and life. Sure they feel bad but what can ya do? (maybe not plant a killing timer in the place of their heart. maybe). Favorite movies are Fantastic Planet, But I'm a Cheerleader, and Vanilla Sky. Listens to PinkPantheress and Michael Jackson.

What Cricket and Jim and the entire company really represent is a visceral reminder of our morality and the preciousness of our life. We can't spend our days not living, trapped in a 4 by 4 room, anxious about the past, present, and future, our life is too precious and can be too short for that. The LGDC symbolize an extreme reminder of our morality, our hearts are ticking timers and we must live before they hit zero, otherwise ya die. Cricket views morality as a part of life, that's that, Jim views it as something to really fight against and make the most of. The company at large views it as something to be conscious of and live with. 

Will any of this be useful for the actual short? idk. Will I cast people who actually look like the concept arts? No probably not. Is the script done? Nearly. Will I cast and buy props this week so production can start next weekend? Yeah.

OH and I made a Spotify playlist that captures the film's vibe and its messages. Thx. See ya.

THE LIFE & GO DEPT. CLINIC concept playlist