CCR....again....

 My CCR's last year were BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD 

The visuals were whatever closer to bad, and they were just kinda boring because the content wasn't well planned. AAnd while this year I don't have to worry about visuals since its written, I shall prepare to make them have better content. Sooo here is a little bit of research so that my CR's come better this year. So Im going to be looking at two blogs from last year, to see their critical reflection. 

#1

https://superdupermediablog.blogspot.com/ 

I started with my friend Mateo's blog. He gives some insight on the whole production process by talking about researching comedy conventions and studying other short films. Plus he describes how in specific moments he used X researched convention. This ofcourse connects pre production with his actual production which is very positive. 

He also uses media to reinforce comparation and illustarte his inspo, and his job. He also explains how this inspirations were not choseen randomly, but aimed towards his target audience. 

Overall a big portion of the CR moves around explainning the decisions made for the production itself, but he also talks in less detail of choices in the print component. 

#2

https://mhmediastudies103.blogspot.com/

And I looked at this one because I remember seeing this shortfilm and remember it is strong on representation of groups, and its main character is a tennage girl, with teenager problems soooo its perfect for us. 

They give a clear insight into the purpose behind their production, especially by focusing on representing young queer teens and the internal struggle of self-acceptance. They talk a lot about all of the decissions made, that is somenthing that when you see the shortfilm you can just telll how many choices were made. The mise en scene is very important and the CR highlights it. 

They also show how their research influenced their work, particularly by referencing other coming-of-age films and short films. Once again just like the last ne showing how it is crucial for the development of the film.  

Group meeting numero dos

On Monday we also had our group meeting but I wrote about filming yesterday, so lets talk about it. 

I'll start talking about the other projects first. 

David

I was very surprised to see that he actually filmed during his trip to Europe. I'm very excited to see how that turns out because it is such a cool thing to see on a school project. Like as a student you are always a little limited, but he just went fully out with it. He took a risk and he did mention that the clips arent like awesome, but I think it still feels very rewarding to take a challenge like that and push trough it. 

Mariana 

I feel your pain. She described a lot of problems with organizing all of her actors and also a lot of rewritting. Thats just sooo similar to our experience. 

Ryan 

WOW, Im really excited to see this finished. The fact that he is scoring his own shortfilm is so cool. I also really like small concepts like his were a character is just facing a situation and is pushed to the limits. His fotage looks great and I really want to see more of the music he has made for it since he only showed us one song. 

Lauren

She told us she has all of her footage, and its working on the social media and key arts. That talking about this ones, the ones she showed us I can just see the inspiration from Priscilla which was one of the movies she had on her research. Its always good to see were people's inspiration comes from. 

Andrew

He mainly showed us the postcard since it was what he had on his computer, I do really like it btw. 

Now going to the feedback we got from our project. They like the social media aspect of it. We improved the posts and added a little texture to them, and changed the font and they loved it. 

They said it all does give witchy vibes, and kinda still remainsgirly with the stars in the background. 

Regarding the story they were a little sad that we abandonded the other idea, which I can undertand since it was kinda fresh and maybe a exciting to see how it came out. But they liked the new idea, and they liked the plot points I described. I mainly focused on explaining the characters inner conflict and her desire of belonging, plus I described how the dynnamic of the girls would carry out. 

I showed them the footage from our first filmmingday and they liked it, even though I only had the log version on me. 

Its great to see that people are liking this project. 

Final filming day.

 Today Monday after school we went to film to Town Center. We had to film a little montage to use on a flashback with only two of our actresses. This was perfectly scheduled as this gave time for one of our actresses to come since she was busy right after school, but at the same time we stayed productive. 

For this little montage we decided to use a canon powershot (reference pic of the camera in 3,2,1)

I had a conversation with Zach and we agreed that the flashbacks would be nice if they were shot handheld. It'd give a warm, cozy and most important distant vibe. This became an important addition to our short film so we really focused on making it look important and have impact. Shots with movement that highlighted the girls friendship, inserts to enhance it, and give more dynamic editing. The digicam tplus handheld would help achieve a nostalgic vibe. Which is important to give some importance to the character we were introducing with it (Sarina). 

After this as we were in town center we bought trash bags to cover thhe windows so that we could start filminbg inside we needed it to be dark to control the light better and to fake that it was nighttime for a scene. This was important cuz, rn the sun is setting soooo late and we wouldn't have filmed anything if we waited until so late. 

(window half blocked)

After this we filmed for a long time, we went until 11pm I believe. Despite being tyring it came out good. Since Zach was directing and Quinn was DP, I worked alongside Quinn to set the lights for the different scenes. We would have our four characters sitting making a sqaure (I made a little drawing but its kinda chopped so I shall explain it) A red and purple light in two corners, and we would have a light at 5600k at the characters faces from the middle, this to even out the strong shadows that the two RGB created.  We needed the two RGB lights for the scene of the ritual to set a mood of danger and emotional climax. I was very happy with how the shots ended up looking. 

(SET UP)

(SHOT)

Filming again

 

And we film again. 

it is always a little scary to handle so many actors, their dates, when they are busy or free, it is always so hard to make things work but today was a productive day. 

It was also my sister's birthday, reason for why I had to leave a little early duringthe shooting, because I had to go have dinner with my family. And look at the cute gift i got for her. 

(the figure on the left)

Going back to filming, we made sure that we got as much done. We filmed all the cutaways to the now named as the void but it is the cutaways in first person on the black backgrounf that I mentioned before. We also took advantage of the set up to take pictures of the cast for the social media. And to be super productive we also started editing them as some of the scenes were filmed. 

My role was mainly help set up lights, and help moving stuff around . The space we were filmiong was also a little small so having to many people behind the camera wasnt fully useful, so after helping set up, I went to edit some of the pics, and periodically go change some things on set. 

Chill but productive day. 

 Aneesa and I thought of making posts of the cast- but they are tarot cards. 

Tarot cards are the main element of witchcraft on our film, so I'td nice if we use them. So we made front with the pic, and the back of the card has a description/presentation of the cast. We made a little layout and waited for the pics. 

(layout)

I did this on a mac cuz I was using Quinn's computer to save time and I gotta say that I really dislike macs. Like why is their touchpad so weird. 

But anyways, this is the final look with the actual pictures on it. 

ANNND we used a different color for the actors. We used red sinse its kind of an important color in the movie, and just also to have a distinction. 

For them we will write a description of the characters rather than the actors, though. Sinse it works as an opportunity to introduce audiences to aspects of the story. 

We are back at our dear Cypress bay

 

I really didn't miss this place. Comming back from break makes me think of my old school in Colombia and how I felt a little excited to go back to school after breaks. It was such a nice place back there, like it had a playground, and I had recess. Like I had a school break that gave me enough time to do somenthing more than just having lunch.

Bring recess to highschool. 

But yeah after this little nostalgia attack lets review somenthing that I wasn't very excited to see again, this script. 

It has been a true pain in the you know. There is always a new part of it that it isn't fully convisning, now it was the ending. I felkt the build up wasn't good enough, and adding an external element like the crush, really didn't add as much as I was thinking, so this is the summary of my week: a third attempt on this script. 

Changed the figure of an ecternal character driving the conflict to an non so external one, being one of the other witches. And she kind of switching sides. I like this, and I really like the new middle. 

Somenthing that I also thought of was on a quote I once read "write with them, not for them." A dear friend of mine quoted it, while we had a conversation on how much we both dislike James Cameron's Avatar movies. And I was like duh, Im writting a movie about girls, and Im not a girl. 

So I talked a little with my sister, and she mentioned how she liked the detail of her getting ready foe school being a big deal. Sinse beauty standars are somenthing that do exert a lot of pressure in many and almost every girl. Also by talking with her, I gave kind of a new role to our main mean girl and at the same time giving more importance to the fact that they are witches (which I believe is important sinse its our little unique thing) 

The main mean girl (Andreina) will have control over how the other ones look, contolling how they feel about their looks and overall working as a source of relief for their problems. They follow her blindly cause she gives answers. Sarina (one of the girls) will try to tell claire not to fall into Andreina sinse it also has its dangerous side (if loosing your individuallity and following everything that someone says isn't enough) but she (Sarina) wants to stay. Claire would push her to scape as well, at the end defeating the mean witch and geining a true friend. Im missing to propperly write the ending and but I have the idea and I like it. I like how Andreinas new role can connect to current and enhaced tendencies that are strengthen due to the internet.  

Oh funny fact one of our actresses got bangs so we had to change the script and add a scene were she gets bangs. 

(this pic is from another A level I helped film (moment I realized she has bangs))

Writting with like an hour of sleep

Ernest Hemingway I have not read a single book you've written, but I do know you once said: "write drunk edit sober." .So Ididn't drink a bottle of vodka or anything. But I sleept close to nothing last night and somehow made it without taking a nap to late hours of the night and my brain was tired, like really tired. I was talking to my mom over the phome and genuinly was saying the biggest nonsense that ever came out of my mouth, but I was also in flow state, my brain was constantly comming up with new stuff. It was kinda fun.

And I had to write somenthing sooooooo yeah duty called. 

(first time googling a picture of Hemingway he lowkey looks like Pedro Pascal)

As I said my brain was tired so I didn't really stopped to think of small details, and rather just put placeholders when I felt a little stucked (thing that happened a lot with this script.) My main goal was just finding plot points that would match our new aim, and that felt with more strenght. 

The script was missing more emotion so I added the figure of a crush. I don't love this but it kinda draw a line of how far is she willing to go to fit in with the other girls. This aligns with the balance of either fitting in or doing whats right. 

I also started playing a lot more with our first person narrative elements. Our DP has a black huge piece of fabric that we can use to make everything in the bbackground look dark, so I tought we could use this for a new space for our character to share her mind. Being almost if not a literal represantation of her mind. It shows us her expectations, fears, and her loneliness. 

Oh and it also oppened a path for more jokes. Which is somenthing we were missing. We all like jokes.

 

Decisions, decisions

 

We had a little call that solved a big problem we had with the middle of our story. So at first the mean girls were going to just perform a ritual on claire (main girl) and shewouldd scape. And this is lowkey very bland, very very bland. 

The script evolved into somenthing that would involve her more, that would need of her emotional conflict to be developed. 

After discussing it, we decided to take the story in a different direction. Instead of a plot where a malicious spell drains Claire’s life (ts already sounds cliche) and she has to find a way to stop it, we thought it would be better if the witches were actually welcoming her into their group. The main conflict would focus on her internal struggle and her desire to fit in and having to fight sinse this will oppose doing what she thinks its right. Stronger conflict rather than just making a survival story. 

I don't know if it is because it is just not the movies I normally watch but like making good movies with simple plots can be HAAAAARD. It reminds me of this quote.

Filming (wow)

We have filmed our first scene...

Im not gonna lie our pacing as we work has not been the greatest, there has been classes that I feel, deep on my little heart that we could've get a lot more work done, but we got our first scene down. 

Our first scene focuses on exposing our main characters conflict and introducing the other 3 girls. So, even though our sript is not finilized, we will not need to change this in the future and we prioritized having a solid first scene ready to rool this day, rather than rushing the script the day before. 

And I gotta say this was a good choice. Our first scene really really makes our characters shine. Im very happy with the actresses we got. My teammates edited the first pages that I kept short to have more timee to develope later, but they added some little details that enhace the secondary character's personallities. 

As I said seeing the footage that my teammates sent (I couldn't go to the shoot, I was in Tampa seeing a college) I was very very happy with the actresses. Claire transmites the nervousness of the main character. And bro andreina is lowkey perfect for the main meangirl she just like nailed it with her performance. 

(LOG footage) 

Excited to see how this keeps going. 

shooting schedules

 

We have to shot this weekend, and we don't have a script

Zach is going to a state in the north whose team recently got defeated in the superbowl, and he is going the whole springbreak. The perfect time to shot. 

This week we are finishing the script and Friday, sinse is a planning day, we are going to go to Falcon middle school to use Zach's mother room to record a scene. That should take us max max max like two hours. And from there we would move locations going to either Quinn's house, or Aneesa's house to film the ritual. Sinse is a big scene we would wrap the day with it. 

Sinse Zach is leaving we want to shot a big scene and then inmediatelly edit what we shot to save time and film the rest when he is back. 

outlines

Wow today was painful. 

Our idea was just turning very annoying to develop so we kind scratched it. 

Now we are chuds without a story. 

So we went back to an OG idea, making somenthing like The Craft (1996)

but like silly. 

I liked the fourth wall idea but it was becoming a pain in the ass. 

Going to somenthing simpler feels like going to heaven. It still took us some effort to write an outline because our brains were a little fried from thinking on the other idea. And we also tried to incorprate it so it was a little forced... 

But we learned to let go....

Here is the outline

Girl who's pure gets invited by popular Trio to stay on at popular Trio leader house and the sounds backfires and she gets possessed and after she gets possessed she can break the fourth wall and then stuff happens from there ethical stuff a real ethical stuff something that changes her as a person deep down inside 

Beginning:

• MC is introduced as pure cutsie girl type:

• She meets popular girl trio (band of classic prissy hot pink popular girls)

• she takes one of their seats in class and they sit around her

• They start talking to her, in a fake kindness tone

• They invite her to one of their popular girl hangs (mean girls esque)

Middle:

• Hard cut to her outside the door of the hangout

• She talks to the camera while waiting in excitedly, but gets cut off with the door opening

• Popular girl briefly questions who shes talking to, but MC waves it away quickly, but also notices a charm around her neck

• The do classic girly stuff, MC notices the other 2 wearing the same charm

• Popular girls suggest doing a witchy spell casually “it’ll be fun” its revealed that they are practicing witches, and have been doing magic for a while (they maintain their prior characterization though)

• They start the spell, MC notices her energy draining and stops the spell

We are missing some plotpoints but is better than before.