WESTERN COLORGRADING!!!!

Color is an additional process color correction, which makes your images look exactly like they appear in real life. Working as the base to later create a mood through a different color palette. Color grading involves the alteration of several variables, such as saturation, hue, lum, and more. As a base for our raw footage we changed a little bit the white balance giving the footage a more warm look. 

Normally If one wants to play a lot with colorgrading one would record in log. A format that has really unsaturated and gray colors. But stores a lot of information allowing to play with them in post po. We pre altered the footage a little bit just for efficienty matters. 

Our rae footage still sticks to the the basic description of the colors of wester films. Vibrancy is probably the thing that stands out the most. The clothing which has strong colors is highlighted by the vibrancy on the overall colorgrading. The vibrancy also is seen in natural environments through a bright blue sky and vegetable life like trees, and grass process a really strong color, that can take yellowish colors due to the stereotypicall yellowish colorgrading. Skin color is also affected by this, some highlights are a little bit orange in several western films. Our films thanks to the alterarion plus shooting with natural sunlight really has this highlishts present. 

Strange way of life (Pedro almodovar)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone)

Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)

A common look for this films is the famouse orange and teal. The orange is present in the highlights and a blue/green color is present in the shadows. We already have the orange due to the white balance and the sunlight. For the shadows we would have to lower the blacks and shadows as they are a little washed out due to the strong sunlight. But after this we can apply the teal color to them. 

Filmakking as any other art has a lot of ways of achieving the same goal. One may be faster than the other. One may have a to some extent better outcome, but it is important to learn from every path. As these paths can be connected to enhace evolution of one's creations. 

Colorgrading low key scares me sometimes, as I fear not to match colors in each scene, so I really try to learn every time I can. 

Adobe. “What Is Color Grading and How Do I Use It? - Adobe.” Www.adobe.com, www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/hub/guides/what-is-color-grading-in-photography.html.

Eziedo, Israel . “ How to Get Cinematic Old Western Film Look | Davinci Resolve 16 Tutoria.” Youtu.be, 8 May 2020, youtu.be/32EF2roSNXE?si=7MIt5QO5_sesQJ-P. Accessed 27 Feb. 2025.

Directing

 For my second production post I'd like to talk about the process of directing. Our group is made out of four people, in which only one acted, and the rest were behind the camera. Our teacher warned us how each of us were individuals with strong ideas that may crash into each other during the project. This could be seen since one of the first bloggpostd in which I said how I wanted to do a Sci-Fi while another teammate wanted to do a western. The good part is that we all have experience working together and we are able to yield when necessary. I gave up the idea of making a sci-fi but in return I had complete freedom to write a western. And thats how the team worked previous to the recording of the film oppening, one yields but one later gains. During it the recording it was a little bit more wild. 

We had a script to follow but not the exact location on vista view park to follow it. So all of us constantly proposed ideas, and gave directions to our actress. To that point the three of us where directing. It was a little chaotic some times but overall It gave great results. As due to the lack of planning regarding the location several shots had to be to some extent improvissed or a deep level of thinking was required to be careful not to break any rule of filmmaking. 

It comes to my mind a shot where Emi is walking horizontally, and we wantedd to get a shot of her going up kind of diagonally. So due to the path the mountain had she would have to walk the opposite direction from the other shot, this would oppose to the idea of progressing. This was the dynamic, all of us working with the same goal of not letting any detail to ruin the film. Constant discussion was required but it is part of the process. 

Despite asigning roles at the begining, due to the size of the group everyone ended up engaging in each others job. Which would normally be not a great thing but due to the clash of our ideas and individualisms a project that all of us are proud of is possible. 

It is also important to highlight how some shots were new and improvised on set. This type of ideas wouldn't be so easy to perform if all the members of the group didn't get involved. As a writter I came with the idea for the final shot, but I needed that the person on camera was able to recreate what was on my head. 

(final shot)

It is true that shooting this way took us a little bit longer than it should. But the quality of the raw footage is one that we feel proud of and that is really really important. 

I hate shooting outdoors.

For the first production post I'll be talking about location in general. To be honest our location scouting was really vage. At the beginning we were really focused on it, mostly because we didn't had a script and the easiest way to portray western would be through location. Shooting in the ranches or somenthing, so we where looking for places and calling them. But once I wrote the script location was no longer a problem. As the character was in a really lonely place. We just thought of a place for long shots (it really worked) and as I've been there once as a group we never went together to pick a specific place to shoot in Vista View Park the place of our choice. We wen't confidently as I already had made a shortfilm there, but It would have been better to actually plan it better. I had to walk with a sack of dirt which was a lil heavy. 

Also we had to change shooting time almost the day before as vista park wasn't openned at that early in the morning. This wasn't actually that big of a deal, I would say it was actually a good thing. As we wanted to go for really wide shots, with a high F-stop and shooting early in the morning the shots would have been really dark. Using direct sunlight can be relly hard as you can't control it, and without a good camera the shots can be really really bad. 

Weather was hot and there was a lot of sun. Which usually makes shooting outside really hard but we had ND filters. ND stands for Neutral Density, refering to the blocking of light in a way that the colour of the light isn't changed. The ND filters where the key to exploit the place we where shooting. ANd open field with a lot of light. Resulting in some amazing shots. 

The first day of shooting showed us how planning is extremely important. As the different locations where one shots, have different conditions that may affect the process. 

“ND Filters – in Depth Guide for Beginners.” The School of Photography - Courses, Tutorials & Books, www.theschoolofphotography.com/tutorials/nd-filters-in-depth-guide-for-beginners.

STORYBOARD

I love storyboards. They are so useful. A quick definition of storyboards is that they are a way of visualising a script through a sequence of panels. A shot list or a script are visualized in sketches. As the main writter ssing the story board that our teammate made felt so good. Because it cleared all the doubts I could have about the script, the planning of the shots, and just everything. And it is just gorgeous, the drawings are just so pretty. 

The story board covers the eniryte of the script. Having a panel per shot, which is great. It may skip some shots but its just because they are just the same and we just needed the visual guideline. It also has some notes that are useful for directing the actor, which is Emi which also is who made the storyboard so its her own language and she understands it. This makes the expierence on set easier as she is familirized with how the script goes, has the visual image of it, and already knows what kind of directions she'll get. 

The sequencing of the shots was somenthing that had me a little worried, as a lot of longshots despite thanks to our investigation is an extremely common thing in western, even more for opening scenes. It just felt a little scary. As to be honest in most of the projects I've worked on, shots are usually just medium shots or closer. Going wide is always harder for mics ands focusing the shot itself, but also to be honest its because I normally don't plan my projects that much. For this one planning was required and it shows of how useful it is. Because Im actually writting this after shooting. 

And I can just say that the story board just saves so much time at setting the shots. It just works as a visual guide on what to do, and allows other creative decisions to flow way easier. The script had description of the shots already, so we knew the shots by heart. But adding the storyboard just made everything even faster, better and way more efficient. 

Merriam Webster. “Definition of STORYBOARD.” Merriam-Webster.com, 2019, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/storyboard.

Western Production design

Mise-en-scene is basically every visual element that appears in front of the camera in a video. So consists of several elements, being production design one of them, which also is made up by other elements: sett design, costume, make up, lightning and props. I wont mention props as they are really important and it would be good to make a separate bloggpost. 

Sett design 

Set design is the creation of a physical environment in which the film will be developed. We will be shooting in location so we really don't have to bother a lot about this. But we do have to take care of one of the goals of set design which is planning the relationship of subjects towards their environment. As we want to have those common western shots in which a lonely character is contrasted to a big natural environment, we will have to use elements such as trees to enhace the size of the subject. This will be really important as we will be shooting on a really big hill and with the camera we have we wont be able to go for extremely long shots. 

Sett design is meant to also talk for the characters, most if it is a personal space like a house. Which shoud be decorated according to the characters personality and state of mind. As we are shooting outside what would be represented through set design, and actually scouting location is the characters situation. A lonely place where no one will see her trying to bury the sin she comitted. 

Lightning. 

Lightning has a simple definition, it is just how a subject and a source of light interact in a scene. Even if its simple it doesn't mean it isn't important. As lightning can, and more than can should be intentional. Because lightning is able to tell things that other elements of the mise-en-scene can't. They are really good in portraying feelings, and characters inner thoughts. As we will be using natural light, we won't be able to control this as much, but we will shoot in early ours of the morning. This with the idea of portraying that what its being done is meant to be hidden (main character is burying someone she killed). We'll get to location really early around 5, to be able to get several shots, that we already planned. We really need to overshoot in case of any problem. 

(more or less the type of light will be exposed to)

For the early time in the morning we would definitely going to need extra light. Expressions are important for story as our physcal elements of production design like sett design won't be able to portray the characters feelings. We will highly depend on acting which will be enhaced by light. It will be a little bit dark so for closer shots like medium or closeups we are gonna get a light tube or a source of portable light so we can manipulate light a little and show the acting. 

Shooting outside doesn't free us from respondabilities regarding mise-en-scene. It actually makes them a bigger challenge as the range oof control of them is smaller. But with the preparation exposed in this post we'll achieve our goals.

DeGuzman, Kyle. “Production Design in Film — How to Tell Stories Visually.” StudioBinder, 16 July 2023, www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-production-design-in-film/.

Deguzman, Kyle. “Set Design in Film — Process and Purpose Explained.” StudioBinder, 15 Oct. 2023, www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-set-design-in-film-definition/.

Soundscape for a western

Audio is more important than video. This is an undeniable truth. Nowadays, even with a phone, decent quality video can be taken, but bad audio that breaks immersion is just as easy to get. Almost all sounds in a film are added after shooting; normally, only dialogue is recorded directly on set. Many westerns in their film openings play with the absence of sounds, mainly using nature sounds that can be added after recording. This has, of course, always been done with a purpose: establishing setting, showing a lonely character, setting a pacing, even the combination of these. These combinations are achieved through the combination of elements as well.

Combinations

SLOW MUSIC + SHOTS WITH A LONG DURATION

Shots with a long duration already speak for themselves. The lack of constant cutting portrays a more contemplative and slow pacing. Take a look at this scene in which a folk song by Leonard Cohen, with long duration shots, highlights the loneliness of the main character. A very important thing is the sound design, which is full of ambient sounds, with only steps as human-made sounds. This enhances how small and lonely the main character is in contrast to the huge environment that surrounds him.

This is a lot as what we aim for. As we could easily add all this videos from websites like PIXBAY or even YOUTUBE. For AICE media we alredy had to create a sound design from scratch. Plus other fim related works that I've done, I know that I can find all I need in this two sytes. We could foley maybe the digging and walking to make it with the perfect timming but just in the case that we have extra time, because it can perfectly work only with the sounds we download from these sytes. 

ABSENCE OF DIALOGUE 

The previous scene is also an example of this but I'd like to show a different example, in which almost a whole situation is developed, without dialogue when in many movies dialogue would've been used. 

The confrontation between the characters is developed through actions. It follows the basic rule: show, don't tell. For our film opening, we will be shooting outdoors, so we really don't want to record dialogue because we will be shooting in an open field where there will be a lot of wind. This would make the audio really low quality, and we don't want that. In the first example, there is a scene in which dialogue is not necessary, but in this one, there is no dialogue for almost two minutes, and it's done to generate suspense. And really good sound design helps this. An unrealistic sound perspective that lowers the volume of some ambient sounds to enhance specific moments is something we can definitely use.

I think that for the moment our main character is digging, it'd be a great moment to mute all ambient sounds to only hear the digging and make it a more powerful scene.

MUSIC

Music in western films is predominantly acoustic: guitars, violins, and banjos. It all depends on the dramatism of the scene. For our opening, I'd like to take inspiration from the first 20 seconds of Leonard Cohen's "Traveling Light". For some recent projects, I've mixed non-copyright instruments from YouTube and put them together. This song is the repetition of a guitar sound and some really dramatic violin. I can definitely make something like this.

There are ways of complementing our video with great audio. It is essential that we make it right so the film opening is more immersive.

VCV. “Sound Atmosphere of the Western Movie Genre.” VCV Community, Aug. 2022, community.vcvrack.com/t/sound-atmosphere-of-the-western-movie-genre/17964. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.

“260 Sound Design for Westerns: Bass Reeves – TONEBENDERS.” Tonebenderspodcast.com, 2024, tonebenderspodcast.com/260-sound-design-for-westerns-bass-reeves/.

Developing a Cowboy

I already made a blog with some previous ideas on how to develop the conflict of our main character. I mentioned the two types of fixations that fit for a western story. It is first important to understand that as people, a fictional character has all 9 types in them, but they have one more than the others. For our character, I decided to go with a type 6 as a main conflict.

Types 6 are those who struggle with anxiety and fear, as they are part of the fear cluster. They have a deep need for security as they fear the world that surrounds them. One of the two types of sixes are those who struggle to trust themselves and their intuition—they often ask a committee for help in making their decisions. Due to this, they attach themselves to a powerful authority structure (e.g., religion, politics) as it helps them feel safe. They are called the phobic 6. On the other hand, the other type of 6 are those who blindly believe in their own ideals: a counterphobic 6. In the end, both sixes fail to embrace that the world is a dangerous place and still face it. As they try to find ideas that explain their problems and accept them without questioning them, as a coping mechanism, they find ways to blind themselves and numb the painful path of life.

At the beginning, I thought this fit the main character and her story the best. I thought she was afraid of what people could do to her due to her bounty, so she would accept death as punishment. But in reality, she knows what she wants: she wants to be seen by the son of the man she killed. This is a story of forgiveness, both from the son of the man she killed and from her toward herself. It is her leaving the hole she has dug for herself and climbing out by her own means, to some extent with the help of the son.

Types 4 are those who somehow enjoy being in a bad state, and they are really conscious about it. They think they know who they are. They tend to be really narrative about their problems, as they don't want to change them, even though they can. Our main character is an extreme type four; she is literally accepting death before changing. She convinced herself of being the bad one in the story. It is important to understand that she killed a man by accident and in self-defense. Her religious values do play a role in her self-vision, but she is not a 6, as these ideas don't make her feel safe; it's the total opposite—she feels she is the one to blame. Here is where one realizes that she is a 4. She indeed has some characteristics of a 6, but this type of characteristic doesn't determine what type the story is because it is really more about the type of story that is being told rather than the character being religious or not.

(example type 4)

So, the narrative structure for our main character's arc is the following:

1. Establish the pit she is buried in.

In her first lines, the audience will get to see how she has given up on herself. This will be explored once the main character's past is shown later in a flashback.

2. Introduce the man's son.

This is a key plot device, as our main character isn't able to forgive herself; she'll need an element to make her realize she can be redeemed—the source of her guilt. She will find him at the moment the first act ends in order to transition to the second act. The second act will develop the relationship between them. At first, the son will be mad at her, of course, and they will go on a journey toward the town where the father was born because the son feels it is the right place to avenge his father. At the end of the journey (reaching act 3), they will both realize there is no reason for giving up their lives.

3. Climbing out of the pit.

Our main character, alongside the son of the man she killed, will face a lot of dangerous situations as they reach the town. Close experiences with death will make her feel attached to it. Also, both of them shall be exposed to the injustices of society, with the goal of understanding how power structures affect others. This is so the son can empathize with our main character, as her "sin" was caused due to abuse of the patriarchal structure. She will finally find the need to live, but she won't realize it until the last moment (a very classic way of developing negative development in fixations). But this story won't be a negative development; it is simply that her self-conviction was really strong, and it can't change out of nowhere, so it makes sense that if it is going to change, it does so under a critical situation, such as facing the destiny she chose. A good resource would be her facing this final test twice, maybe when she finds the son, but he decides to do it in the town his father was born. This gives the script the possibility to develop parallelism and evolution, as well as it may give a glimpse of the type of person the son is by showing him trying to honor his father, but establishing to some extent that he is scared of the idea of killing and death, giving him a stronger reason to pull the main character out of this hole.

I'm really happy with how the story developed, more so taking into account how lost we were at the beginning of the project. Also the enneagram is just a tool that I find useful to understand the characters. As once you create them as a writter you technically can decide what they are going to do, but somentimes this things don't match their actual characters. 

Hook, Joshua. “The Core Struggles of Each Enneagram Type - Joshua N. Hook.” Joshua N. Hook, 16 Feb. 2020, joshuanhook.com/2020/02/16/the-core-struggles-of-each-enneagram-type/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2025.

Scriptman, L. (2024, August 31). Writing with the Enneagram: Type 6. YouTube. https://youtu.be/qg1xzb1717A?si=HXWLM34XKKCnovRz

SCRIPT

This project has been a quite ambitious one, in which we started with a clear idea but not a lot of goals nor paths to develop this idea. As the days passed and the investigation continued, we were able to establish characteristics of the western genre we wanted to preserve, and some we would like to give a twist, mainly the main character.

Writing a script can be hard sometimes, as you may have an idea for the end but not the beginning, or vice versa. This gets even worse for just a film opening as we don't have a real beginning, middle, and end to develop. So we just started writing random ideas that came to mind, shots, lines, etc.

This was one of the first ideas that came to our minds. It just follows the stereotypical lines of a western, that are kind of theatrical, but there wasn't a real context behind these lines so we completely got rid of those, but we kept the idea of the symmetrical shot with the main character's legs. Later, one of our teammates came with an idea for a monologue, which to some extent is a pretty obvious line which may sound stupid, but it is effective. And with the right cinematography, the tone would feel really serious.

We really liked the line so to make it sound serious, we decided we needed a slow pacing. Long shots and a respectable time between cuts will help with this. Here is a little try we made just to hear the line with some video behind and see how the ideas for pacing worked.

I was the writer and with the pacing in mind, the first half of the script came out really easily. I decided to write a kind of narrative and descriptive script as we will later develop a shot list. The shot list is important as we'll shoot outside where we can't control the light, and we want to get the best outcome possible.

Script (first half)

Black screen 

Fade

Longshot

 Of a hill whose magnitude is shown by leaving the sky a narrow space to be seen. Emi slowly walks into frame, as she slowly goes up the hill carrying a bag on her right hand and a shovel on her left hand. 

Cut to another long shot, 

from the front Emi’s face is seen, as well as how tired she is. As she continues her way up she wipes the sweat out of her face with her left arm. 

A final long shot from this sequence 

From a lower back angle finalices her way to the top, in which accomplished she dropped the bag and as she grabs the shovel with both hands she whispers to her own soul

EMI: “Lately….I’ve started to realize that.. the longest thing I’ll do in life… is live.

Medium shot of emi in the right third digging

As she digs a crucifix comes out of her clothes to continue with the echoes of her thoughts. 

Close up of the crucifix bouncing as she digs. 

Back to the medium shot of emi in the right third digging

EMI: “And the shortest thing I’ll do…. is die”

Hard cut to a long shot of her back as the word die still echoes. 

A pile of dirt can be seen to her left. And to her right as the finalization of  the digging, she nails the shovel to the ground, as she takes a picture out of her pocket and looks at it. 

Close up of the picture. 

EMI: Through my hands your old man’s last breath escaped. 

Close up her looking at the picture, from the side. 

As she gets the picture down and raises her head determinedly.

EMI: Through your hands my final breath shall escape. 

As her thought finishes she’ll turn and grab the bag.

Wide shot from the side 

The bag is dumped in the hole and as the sounds of her shoveling is heard, fade to the title screen.

The second half took a little bit longer to write. Our first half had a really slow pacing so I didn't want to break this pattern, but I did want to speed things up a little bit. The plot in the first half is exposed mainly through visual elements and two lines of dialogue. This is good as it isn't completely developed, but it opens some paths to what may happen in the future.

Second half. 

Really wide shot of a building 

As a building is seen in the distance, emi walks into frame but only her legs are seen before she starts walking towards the building. The long shot follows her, before her upper body is seen. 

Medium Shot

Reveals a change in her image: she is hiding his face and her hair. But her taking out the same picture from her pocket, confirms her identity 

As she reaches the building, a guy standing next to it starts to approach her. 

Cross cut between both medium shots, cut faster as they get closer. 

Close up of a gun against Emis body 

Man: Hey there pal…. Im looking for this woman

As he pulls reward sign

Man: Between cowboys I don’t mean to offend you but you kinda look like her. 

Close up emi: Remain silent 

Man: Would you mind letting me see your face 

Cut to black. 

So for the second half, I sought a way of showing consequences to what is established in the first half of the opening without making it a huge deal. I decided to establish problematic situations as the main character's new normal, by also showing she had earned herself a bounty.

Another important thing to highlight for this second part is establishing the conflict of being a woman, which will have more importance in the future, but it is important to establish.

I really liked the job I did with the script. It is perfectly doable and we'll work hard on a shot list and storyboards so we can translate this into a more visual language.

Gender Performativity in a western

When one takes a deep look into the Western genre, one can see how it is dominated by male protagonists. You can look at different lists created by users on platforms like Imdb or Letterboxd a and the most popular and acclaimed Western films feature a male main character. This led to the rise of glorious careers like John Wayne's, who shined in many Western roles and will be remembered forever. However, this left the whole female perspective in the shadows.

This is mainly caused by gender roles. Western films usually have a main character with a strong personality who exposes themselves to dangerous situations and is constantly fighting. In the past, women were relegated to roles inside the home, and even though cowgirls existed (I'll elaborate further in the blog), consumers of Westerns—society in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s—were attached to sexist values that led them to expect a man to face these situations.

We believe that Judith Butler’s Gender Performativity Theory is very interesting to apply to our piece, as it would allow us to explore how society has built the idea of male gender around cowboys, and we could subvert this. As Judith Butler explains, gender isn't something we are born with, but something society builds upon us. The activities that each gender is "meant" to perform aren't set in stone and are only chains that can be broken. Despite cowgirls actually existing, in pop culture, they didn't play the same role as cowboys, but our main character will face a situation in which she'll have to break free from what is expected of her.

CONTEXT

As I mentioned, cowgirls actually existed, and as Cowboy by Choice states, "In the late 1800’s, the role of the cowgirl emerged alongside the cowboy during the late 19th century in the American West. As the cattle industry grew, women on ranches took on the same tasks as men, such as herding cattle, breaking horses, and tending to livestock." This creates a great dilemma, as despite having the same role, their representation in media is not the same. This aligns with the idea proposed by Butler of gender being constructed by cultural norms, the repetition of behaviors that enhance them. The lack of female Western main characters relegated female characters from the role of the cowgirl to a secondary role that complements men, like just doing tasks at home or being a damsel in distress.

The vision in which women are relegated to tasks in the house is one from the cities during this time. For our main character, we will make her a city girl, so in her past, she fitted into the vision of women during that time. But in order to accomplish her mission, she can escape from these expectations, as gender roles aren't something one is born with but something that is imposed.

Gender performativity can be used within our piece to analyze both the cultural and social context during the Wild West and to analyze the audiences who consume Westerns. By analyzing the audience, we can find new ways to break stereotypes within the genre that, to some extent, harm culture, as they ignore facts from history and keep them hidden through the repetition of practices that relegate cowgirls to the shadows.

Cowgirls are cool guys btw.  

Cowgirl by choice - cowboy by choice. (2024, September 4). Cowboy by Choice. Retrieved February 14, 2025, from https://cowboybychoice.com/cowgirl-by-choice/#:~:text=In%20the%20late%201800's%2C%20the,horses%2C%20and%20tending%20to%20livestock.

Montana Women’s legal History timeline. (2018, October 16). Montana Women’s History. Retrieved February 14, 2025, from https://montanawomenshistory.org/research/legal/

Big Think. (2023, June 8). Berkeley professor explains gender theory | Judith Butler. YouTube. https://youtu.be/UD9IOllUR4k?si=XSJdjl57BGfUqFWG

 

PROJECT SUMMARY!!!

This project started as a western Sci-Fi, but we quickly had to downgrade this idea to something more simple. We were quite excited to make something ambitious, but we had to be realistic. Simply doing a western, though, opened the path to be ambitious in a different way. For the first two minutes, we will use visual elements mainly to establish the beginning of a big journey. We will represent this journey by using long shots that invite the audience to join the main character in this journey. These long shots will show some mise-en-scène elements, like the costume design.

Story-wise, these shots will show the main character carrying a body to the top of a hill. She is going to bury the body of a man she killed by accident.

Here is just a sample of a similar shot of what we want.

Alzate, L. (2023, September 8). Asfixia - A Short Film. YouTube. https://youtu.be/U_0WHrSN14Y?si=Pz4RsJdNf6MGLOWM

Her relationship with this man will explore the role of women, as she will be a worker for this man, a maid. This man would have tried to abuse her, and in self-defense, she accidentally killed him. Under religious beliefs and a sense of justice, she feels that she deserves a punishment. So, she will search for the son of the man she killed, in order to give him the chance to kill her and claim the bounty on her head. The end of the first act would be her finding the son. The whole second act will develop a relationship between them. The arc of the main character will be somehow leaving this fixation she has of punishing herself when what she did is a gray and justifiable action, rather than a dark, unforgivable event. The story will develop a dynamic in which, as she gets in touch with the person to whom she feels she owes due to the pain she caused, she also is able to discover that she is being unfair with herself. As I explain in my blog post about the enneagram, this would fit in a type six. A person that attaches itself to a sort of belief as they are scared of the world, so they accept an answer and make it their one and only truth. This would translate in several ways to our character. Religion would be this truth she attaches to, as it gives her answers to her doubts, as she believes so blindly in it that she even would give her life to satisfy the moral values she has adopted from it. The progression in her arc would discover the truth that scares her: that she isn't meant to always play the role someone tells her. Not only in following these religious values, but also in relationships with men.

Scriptman, L. (2024, August 31). Writing with the Enneagram: Type 6. YouTube. https://youtu.be/qg1xzb1717A?si=HXWLM34XKKCnovRz

Group Meeting!!!

On February 11, we had a meeting with other groups to discuss our ideas for our projects and share our blogs. First, I'd like to say it was an extremely useful meeting as it helped me come up with many of the things I felt my story was lacking.

So, first, we just shared a basic idea of our projects, to later share our blogs and see what type of approach and research each of us had, to see how we could help each other improve. I described my project as a Western and talked a little bit about the type of shots I'd like to use for the opening, explaining how I'd like to use long shots for the credits so the attention can be split between the shot and the credits. In the meeting, we highlighted the importance of the location scout, and how not getting the right one could be a huge issue. The other teams gave me some alternatives like a little path next to a regional park, which is next to a farm, or Vista View Park, that has some mountains with sand. This has a lot of value as we could try to shoot in different locations and force a perspective to connect them, in case we need it for a wider variety of shots. I really like the suggestion of Vista View Park, as these kind of sandy paths will help to establish that the audience will be following the main character on a journey, that later would be explained through her looking for someone.. 

Another huge improvement thanks to this meeting was the developing of the story. I had some ideas in mind, the one I explained being a woman cowboy who is a pacifist trying to survive as she has a bounty on her. But this was clearly an issue; it's too simple. The other teams said they liked the base, but they agreed it needed more. So, as they were talking about their projects, I suggested one of them to enhance the contrast between their characters. With this, I thought of a backstory for my character that would help the story gain more depth, and we could establish subtly in the first two minutes, through visual elements. I thought of a young woman that accidentally killed a man, and now she is searching for this man's son to give him the chance to avenge his father and kill her, claiming also the bounty. This gives a reason for her pacifism, as she earned her bounty by accident. The son of this man will be shown through a close-up of a picture that she is looking at, and she will have a monologue that will be somehow directed to him. We also wanted her being a woman to be a matter of significance, as the gender roles for this time were, of course, different. One of my teammates wanted her to pretend to be a man, so pretending to be a cowboy so people don't hunt her bounty and hide her identity makes a lot of sense. Thanks to this meeting, the story and characters start to have more shape and our decisions meaning. A missing point to connect will be her relationship to the man she killed. We would also like this to portray gender roles. For her sense of justice, we thought of making her religious, as we want to establish most of the story through visual elements. Use a cross and show it in a close-up.

Another thing that I discussed with the other teams was how to make the long shots. As Westerns usually use really long shots, that take their time to reveal details about characters to build the slow pacing. This is a fundamental part of our project, and the other teams helped me come up with some solutions. A friend of mine has a drone that we may be able to use; if not, I explained how we could use our camera and raise the F-stop all the way to get a lot of depth of field. Shots like this are still hard to achieve, so as we show the credits, we will get closer to our character, getting to mid-shots so we can see her clothing and still split the attention with the credits and the title screen. 

(Mcabe and Mrs. Miller 1971)

I really thought this meeting wasn't going to be useful at first, but sharing my idea with people external to my project gave me a different perspective and opened paths to develop my idea and think deeper about how technique will be applied to it. We'll use long shots to establish the journey and show the credits, and we'll use a few close-ups to highlight important details. I'm really excited to move forward as the project is starting to take shape. 

How to write a cowboy

I was planning on doing a post about sound design, but since I'm going to be the writer for the film opening, I'd like to do research on how Western characters are usually written. I'm going to use a writing tool I've been researching lately called "The Enneagram."

The Enneagram is popularly understood to divide people into nine types, but this is the first misunderstanding, according to the theory I studied. It states that the Enneagram divides not people but their problems. These nine categories are divided into three major groups according to what type of problem they expose. The hurt cluster shows problems related to self-love and self-worth and includes types 2, 3, and 4. The fear cluster is related to existential anxiety and includes types 7, 6, and 5. And finally, the gut cluster shows problems of inner peace or anger and includes types 8, 9, and 1. The Enneagram is a really useful writing tool as it can give writers a development path according to the problem they decide for their character.

It is important to understand that a character's qualities don't make them a special type; what defines their type is their problems. So Western main characters, like any other characters, can fall under any type, but there are some that are especially used to develop their arcs.

Type 8

One of the Western genre's most common characters is an outlaw who likes to be above others and exert power over them. This is useful, as Western main characters are usually skillful gunmen, giving them a medium to exert this power. The character arc is based on accepting their weakness, breaking that image of a tough guy, and opening up to others. The main character of McCabe & Mrs. Miller, a movie I've talked about in previous posts and which I love, is an example of this—a guy who, to preserve his ego, pretended not to care about a woman but would end up risking his life for her.

This would be a great option, as showing a powerful character would reinforce the setting, and by doing this, we would be talking about and developing the character a little bit. This allows us to have several approaches for the film's development and is completely doable in two minutes. The only problem is that it is probably the most common character in Westerns, and we'd like to do something a bit different.

Type 6 

Type six characters, due to their fear of the world, stick blindly to an institution, ideology, or person. This is developed in several ways in Westerns. Western characters usually have strong moral values, which can be seen in a sheriff with a strong sense of justice. However, it doesn't have to be an ideology imposed by society for a character to be a type six—it can also be the character's own way of thinking. A character that comes to mind is Vash from Trigun, a Japanese sci-fi Western, who, due to the fear of his past, decided not to kill anyone despite living in a hostile environment.

I personally like this idea better as it offers a path for more unique dynamics and characters. Vash and Trigun could be a source of inspiration that I'd like to look into due to how unique this show is.

Sources 

https://www.youtube.com/@localscriptman

https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions/

Schedule

In the developing of the schedule we will take into account the characteristics of our genre. A western highly depends on mise-en scene elements such as set design and costume design. Other aspects we should take into account is in acting, aspects like the accent and body language are things we have to planify and practise with time. So for this be done well, we'll do an schedule planning dead lines for each aspect of pre production, production and post production. 

This elements of course are not things you find every day. For clothing we own some vests and boots that we will try before actually buying any other clothes. We aim to only have two characters so this tasks of props and costumes are easier. 

For locations we will visit old town davie and the Southwest Ranches. 

SCHEDULE:

-PLANNING UNITL FRIDAY

COSTUMES, EQUIPMENT, SCRIPT FINALIZED BY WEDNESDAY

SATURDAY, FEB 8TH

LOCATION SCOUTING, STARTING ON STORY

SUNDAY, FEB 9TH

START ON COSTUMES, DEVELOP THEMES AND GENERAL VIBE AND OR AURA

MONDAY, FEB 10TH

SCRIPT WRITING/ SHOT LIST

TUESDAY, FEB 11TH

SCRIPT WRITING/SHOT LIST

WEDNESDAY, FEB 12TH

SCRIPT WRITING/ SHOT LIST

THURSDAY, FEB 13TH

FINAL EDITS FOR SCRIPT AND SHOT LIST-FINALIZE ALL PRE-PROD PLANNING

FRIDAY, FEB 14TH

LOCATION RUN THROUGH

SATURDAY, FEB 15TH

REVISE

SUNDAY, FEB 16TH

FILM WITH REVISIONS IN MIND, BULK OF FILMING DONE

MONDAY, FEB 17TH

ANY ADDITIONAL FILMING DONE

TUESDAY, FEB 18TH- SUNDAY, FEB 26TH

EDITING 

CCR Rest of the time + Correcting mistakes in editing

This schedule reflects how making an organizes process could help our production in being efficient and succesful. By reparting tasks through group memebers this efficiency will also be enhaced. 

Western AHHH Credits

After debating whether to choose Western or Sci-Fi, we decided to do Western, as it would be really unique. Western peaked in popularity during the '50s with directors like John Ford, four times Oscar winner, and considered by some the greatest director of all time, making a whole filmography based on Westerns. As an "old" genre, some formalities are maybe a little bit old-fashioned, but I'm pretty sure we can make it work. So, because of this, in this blog post I'll research some examples of iconic title screens used in Western films. But before this, a little history research on "Western fonts."

The type of font related to Western is called "Tuscan." Its origins can be traced back to the 4th century, but its popularization sees its origin in American Wood Typing. The time that the 6-line cut of Hamilton’s No 14 (Antique Tuscan Expanded) was manufactured is not clear, but it is probably around 1800.

This type of font started playing a key role in America's visual culture during the 19th century. Due to its popularity, several styles for Tuscan fonts were developed during this time period. Westerns are usually set during the mid-19th century, which makes sense for them to use these types of fonts as they were part of American culture during this time, trying to represent it as close to reality as possible.

Antique Tuscan: semiornamental  

Antique Shade Tuscan: 

More ornamental antique tuscans

Ornamental Tuscan 

Now some movie samples!!

Rio Bravo

A font with a vibrant yellow and red that contrasts with the a little bit desaturated establishing shot in the back is used for both credits and title screen. This looks like an antique light shade Tuscan, not really ornamental, which makes sense, because a really ornamental font will take all the attention off the shot that is behind.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Once again, title screen and opening credits go together; this time they don't have a shot behind. They use a font with serifs, getting closer to an ornamental Tuscan. The signs used for the credits make reference to the origins of Tuscans in wood typing, making it more representative of the Western aesthetic.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

A way more ornamental font is used for these credits and title screen. It really follows that Western image that lies in the collective unconscious.

For our film opening, as we only have two minutes, I believe the most appropriate thing to do is put the credits on the shots rather than making separate graphics for them, as we want to show other types of techniques during the film. As the examples show, for not dragging the whole attention off the shot, a semi-ornamental Tuscan would be appropriate for this task.

I found this website that has several samples of fonts that match this description. Click here to see the website.

Examples: 

Research sites: https://woodtype.org/blogs/news/91-antique-tuscans-in-america