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.

Group meeting

Nikita started...

He has everything kind off figured out regarding actors, locations and costume design. 

Hearing his idea was... an experience. The idea is kind of crazy for a highschool project. Out of the very obvious stuff, I pointed out some other problems and questions I had on how he would pull stuff out.  Problems like a 17 year old highschooler like Robbie (his main actor) being married and doing drugs feeling weird but he is like decided on doing his story. 

He is goimg to rely in clothing to make it more convinsing, which may help a little. 

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Regarding my project many of the comments came from more specific things like plot points, costume, and actors, which we will figure out this weekend as we write sinse our idea is still on the very planning stage. 

They did point out that is a difficult story, and is somenthing I am aware off. Even thought breaking the fourth wall is an element that makes narrative easy, revolving a narrative arround it may be a little harder. 

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Andrew's projeect was another crazy one. Something expectable sinse they are working with Joaquin. They have some elements that are still a little vague, but a very solid an interesting base. They do had to polish plotpoints, because for what Andrew told us, they were kinda just all over the place, Joaquin writting a bunch of jokes without even knowing where to fit them, nor even if they were possible to make. 

Like just picture one of the jokes implied running over someone....several times. Boy thats kinda hard to do you know. 

--

Lauren is doing the trailers, that lowkey surprised me, everyone did shortfilm, but her. She didn't have a clear idea for the plot, somenthing that we tried to help with, but she had a vision regarding look and vibe. Costume design, colors, elements that she had locked on her mind. Looking at the pieces she research I can understand how she has the vibe on her mind before the plot. I saw she researched Priscilla and like that movie is kinda just vibes.

Not having the plot fully figured out isn't a huge problem for a movie trailer sinse Yeahh it is a movie trailer, and you can focus on stablishing different things. And being an editing heavy production having the vibe figured out is huge. 

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Audrey had a very clear structure for her short film. A lot of layers to the story, that I believe with the structure therapy - flashback can be shown, but the story feels a little big regarding plot points. 

I really liked some elements of visual language that she has in mind. Some very good costume decisions. 

Asides of being a big story it feels as an ambitious project. She mentioned a party scene that are always hard to do. But she has a huge part already planned of the overall project so she lowkey has an advantage and if she uses the extra time she can make it work. 

--- 

David, very very ambitious story. Filmming on another country is really crazy but very cool. I do like the story but it's still lacking somenthing. 

When you look at the media he researched you get to understand more for what he is going for. I saw the short "Mop" or somenthing like that, and I know it. I know I've seen it somewhere, and its a cool thing to have as inspiration. I do feel his planning needs more plot points as the base felt a little plain. But its a big story that opens up lot of opportunities, also thanks to the fantastic aspect of it. 

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Kenna. Cool little cozy story. A very very clear vision and very unique. 

I really, really, really liked this. I feel like somenthing really good can come out of this. It would definitelly not be a traditional structure, but it is strong with a strong ending. The metaphor iss pretty, but I feel maybe only by itself it might not achieve what they want. Like ofcourse there would be like a kathartic moment, but that moment needs to be perfect. Somenthig within the character also needs to show growth. I can think maybe after the breakup she takes it well, and this contrast to her stance towards it before. There is a lot of ways to do it, and Im excited to see how it comes out. 

Researching Social Media

Lets take a look at Fleabag's instagram page

https://www.instagram.com/bbcfleabag/

One thing that inmeditally caught my attention was the strong colors present on several of their instagram posts. The green font and then this very bright pink. 

Its a show with a very strong personality that isn't afraid oof breaking conventions. And I personally believe this posts look kinda ugly but they do serve a purpouse of standing out and looking different from usual social media content. Another aspect of what makes them stand out is its "meme" format. This directly seeks to appeal to the young adult audiencee that mainly consumes the show. 

Some of these memes carry adults jokes. Once again reinforcing their target audience. A lot of its content is based on just extracting scenes from the show and either just show them, or like in this cases take them out of context, fully or parcially to create a meme. Some of this jokes are kinda...bad, but its content created on 2022, for a show which last season was releases on 2019.

One of the aspects that I was the most interested on, was on seeing if they used any element of the breaking of the fourth wall for their social media. 

I couldn't find a lot but this one referes to the characteristic trait of the show by stating on its caption "#OnThisDay in 2016, this woman looked right at you for the first time and said a lot of very naughty things, like seriously, A LOT"

The show doesn't have any particularly creative post, the main one would be this promotional for seasons 2 that uses instagram formating to its advantage. It is very comical how it is a very religious looking tainted glass, with the main character's face, and a hamster. It represents the shows unapologetic comedy.

I would've liked to see more posts that played with the element of the fourth wall. Sinse this is somenthing I want to do for our social media campaign. But a big take away from fleabag's instagram was the ways in which aspects pf the show like its comedy and uniqness can be represented through mere elements like color choice and formating of posts like memes. This is somenthing that would be nice to explore, more coincidering the number of posts that we have to make, and that the more variety (regarding content) but consistency (regarding style) that we have, the better. So according to the final thone that our piece ends up having there are a lot of choices regarding color that we can make as well as some funny posts (they would be more funny than fleabag's cuz they are very bad) 

Now lets check "The Boys" tik tok

We will probably do instagram as our social media, but sinse fleabag is a "old" show. It isn't really old, it was just released before tiktok so it doesn't work to seek any content inspiration for Reels, that are now a huge part of marketing in instagram. So I might as well just go to the og reels, tiktok, and check a dark satire. 

Their tiktok as a video platform is full of promo videos (trailers and teasers) But it also has some simple content like bts pics, many of which have a lot of the show's spirit. 

I would like to highlight this kind of tradition that they have of always postinga pic of the main cast doing a mean gesture with their middle finger at the end of filming every season. It is a show characterized for its language, and strong visual content. And as a dark comedy they use violence and strong language as a comedic element. Kinda normalizing or infantilizing this elements trough social media is a strong way of developing their personal brand. 

In the same post of season 5 being wrapped, there is this picture of the main character full of blood, looking very jolly and kissing a Funko. it looks like a very random pic, but it was posted for a reason, the contrast. A toy and blood, this contrast is comical, and this is all what the show is about. 

The use of this strong elements as a comedic resource isn't limited to bts pictures. Lets watch this amazing video example. 

A very short clip of the show, is used to show and interaction of Butcher and Ryan. On this clip it is implied that butcher (a parental figure to Ryan) tells him several times not to be a **** (I know we are allowed to curse in our video productions but Idk about the blogs so just in case) This whole situation is hilarious, is such a bad advice andd the kid just says it back. Its a little moment, no spoilers, no big plot line developed but it appeals to the thone. By also using a very characteristic small elemt, that is Butchers accent. Which makes him say **** several times throughout the show. 

This social media is a great example on how to use the thone of your piece to create valuable content. Somenthing similar can be done with our piece. The Boys uses its characteristic elements to appeal to both fans and new watchers. Fans are used to them and love them, while new watchers will feel intreague when watching some of this out of context. Considering the strong distinct element that we will have in our piece, being breaking the fourth wall, its somenthing that we gotta use in different ways to create video and picture content.

Lastly, lets see Mickey 17's intagram

All I've looked at was shows so I wanted to check a movie's social media, and a A24 one, because their social media is usually really good. So I thought of Mickey 17 sinse its like a satire with some aspects of dark comedy. 

It has a lot of what we've seen before, some clips or scenes that are used out of context as a meme, or they are funny on their own. As a movie it also has some posts like "Number 1 movie in America in the moment" and stuf like that. Nothing very unique, until I found this...  

They had this video that was a conversation on snapchat of two Mickey's amd if Im not wrong their girlfriend. Im not a huge fan of this like it doensn't fully match the thone of the movie in my head, but at least it repesents to an extent the personality of each Mickey while also showcasing a basic idea of the plot of the movie. 

As a bigger production with bigger names, it has content with the actors and directors. It feels genuine and interactive. This one for example is replying to a comment made on their instagram page. This is somenthing I find cool and I think could be interesthing considering our element of the fourth wall. This part usuallly goes at the end, but I think I'd be cool if we make a video in which the camera is travelling towards the director and it has a comment and the director asks the camera like hey whats going on and then he answers the question. Just mixing some things from this one, with the element that is characteristic of our piece. 

The films identity is developed in a very similar way as the other pieces researched. Clips that showcase the thone. It is done less than in the other pieces, as already mentioned the movie hs a bigger cast so it uses its actors to call the attention of viewers. 

Wolf of Wallstreet also shows a bad person as a funny memorable guy...

 

Wolf of Wallstreet (2013)

Here you can see another bad person who only crypto bros like because of TikTok edits. 

Dark comedy in The Wolf of Wall Street works because the movie treats absolute moral chaos like it’s just another Tuesday at the office. Under Martin Scorsese’s direction, Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) narrates fraud, greed, and total excess with the confidence of a motivational speaker.  The tone is so upbeat and celebratory that it clashes with what’s actually happening. He explains scams like they’re business tips, throws parties like they’re corporate bonding exercises, and frames corruption as ambition. The humor doesn’t come from the damage itself — it comes from how normal, even glamorous, he makes it sound. You end up laughing at the absurd scale of everything, then realizing the whole thing is built on exploitation. That tension between charm and collapse is what gives the film its dark comedy edge.

This guy is so clearly a bad person, but like here is the charisma hides bad. The more immoral he becomes, the more motivational he sounds. The audience laughs not because fraud is funny, but because of the absurdity of how convincingly he does indeed sound. You can be fully against him but at some point you kinda believe some of the stuff he says. This once again enhaced by the use of V.O. He explains the mechanics of his fraud schemes directly to the audience. He simplifies complex financial stuff that I lowkey would've got dizzy with. He kinda makes you feel he is letting you into his world but you are only falling into his lie. What an evil guy. 

(Pic from wikipedia from a guy that looks evil but actually isn't so basically the opposite case as the criature that is the main character of the Scorsese movie) 

There’s a moment where he begins to explain something, then interrupts himself — “Actually, let me simplify this…” — and restructures the explanation for maximum clarity. That interruption is comedic because it reveals self-awareness, AND AS WE'VE LEARNED self awarness is a HUGE common trait shared by all the chracters from this little investigation. 

Just like other stuff he shares with the others is how chill he is for most of the film. Dark comedy thrives when chaos is described calmly. The voice-over refuses to panic, even when the world is burning. That refusal creates tension. The audience sees the downfall approaching, but the narrator acts like it’s just another chapter in a success manual.

But he indeed offers a similar route to what Im searching, the fall of a "perfect" emphasis in the "" I mainly mean on how the pereceive themselves. 

\

(Istock)

I really felt like a scientist discovering this first person + being an asshole formula. I understood how people are manipulated, it felt kinda cool. 

Patrick Bateman is a bad person, and that is very bad

 I guess with american psychoo the effect of "Ohh he is not a bad person" doesn't exist unless you are like 13 years old and watch to many edits on tik tok- but can still provide useful info sinse it keeps proving a point. Direct contact with audience, even from the worst character on the planet can create some sort of conection. 

American Psychoo edit that a 13 year old would watch

(https://youtu.be/x19FimfBfOo?si=qphZJ9HxALtNNyDJ)

Patrick narrates his world with extreme seriousness. His skincare routine is described with the intensity of a philosophical manifesto. His obsession with business cards is framed as the end of the world for him. This is the beggining of the dark comedy, a superficial man giving importance to meaningless stuff. And that’s the joke, the film doesn’t ask us to laugh at violence. It asks us to laugh at vanity. Thanks to the first person (which is a primitive less direct and narratively acceptable breaking of the fourth wall) we are inside his perspective and we don't fully absorb it. Sinse what he narrates is just funny. The humor comes from exaggeration wrapped in normalcy, does some of the creepy and illegal things he does which are also carried within this hyperbolic and satiric way, can be funny as well.

His character has another trait that would be useful to research and it is his vanity and egocentrism that are similiar to what would be nice to portray in our main character. American Psycho builds its dark comedy almost entirely on Patrick Bateman’s egocentrism. I like how he explains music trends as if he personally understands cultural evolution better than everyone else. All his actions are very in character. One of the traits I wanted to have for our character was that he just came from a very traumatic moment of his life but he overcomed it, and as he did, the camera started following him. And he becomes aware of the camera. So due to the cameras attention and his arc of evolution he believes he is this superperfect person so he tries to help everyone and bla bla. This is somenthing we can constantly portray through different little moments like it is done in american psycho. 

American Psycho (2000)

Like look at his face he looks and is annoying. 

This deep mechanism of dark comedy and first person narration together.... I feel it, Im going somewhere. Like im tracking how it works. I just need to do more indeep research that its kinda hard to do because of my trip to STN. 

Ferris Buller is a bad person, and thats awesome

 One of the most amazing films ever made, with one of the scenes I replay the most in my head

(Ferris Buller Day Off 1986)

Its gonna be fun to revisit it for investigation. 

The film is a story about rebellious kid. He speaks directly to the audience, rotagonist and narrator, Ferris is a goddamn icon. I was thinking that this movie was only going to be good for the fourth wall but it also will help in kinda portraying a bad person in a comedic way. Because guys, Ferris is lowkey an asshole. He is such an asshole to Cameron, but he is so charismatic. I think maybe portraying somenthing like this, and then the looose of his charisma might be the route for the character arc I want to portray. 

Ferris constantly uses the fourth wall to make comentaries about his friend, which are mean, but the situation and medium of breakinbg the fourth wall also gives that extra layer that adds up to the dark comedy. Ferris is being rude to his friend as he talks to him over the phone, but only the audience hears. Trully trully the complicity and the dark comedy combo are somenthing that Im liking. They go very well together. 

(Ferris Buller Day Off 1986)

This guy is cruelty hidden behind charm. And it is soooooo well done, that I don't often hear people calling him an asshole. Like a lot of poeple just stay on the oh he is soo funny, ohh he is so charming, oh he is the goat. But that is what makes this movie brilliant. Ferris works because his charm never fully cracks. Even when things go wrong — especially with Cameron’s breakdown — Ferris still maintains that composed, self-aware presence. Im very interested on making a film that esxplores a facet of a character like this but that breaks down, and all his evil assholness scapes. 

Genre: comedy but not so comedy

 

 

ComEdy

1. professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an audience laugh.

tragedy 

1. a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character.

Mixing this two genres is something common, but it is also commonly done wrong, more when what is seeked to be done is a dark comedy. This is what we are trying to do. I believe that for our type of narrative were the fourth wall is broken is very likely that we will have to add some comedic elements. On a short film the audience doesn't have enough time to get use to non-traditional elements, and any fourth wall breaking that I can think of is comedic but one.

Funny Games (1997)

Im not saying funny games is a dark comedy btw (even though the name is 100% a relly dark joke) It still carries a critic under its overall style. I guess this would be the gameplan foor our shortfilm. Dark comedy tasks audiences to laugh at subjects that would normally provoke discomfort due to maybe an immoral nature. We would have a very useful element to use the dark comedy and it is the breaking of the fourth wall. It's a direct medium to chanalize the comedy and as a chracteristic trait of a single character we can make sure we are capable of doing somenthing that is very important, making sure we portray the character that's going to be incharged of the dark comedic elements as bad person. You don't want to come across like you are supporting bad behaviours. We are planning on having a very narcisistic main character so I guess it isn't somenthing that can get superoffensive, but it's still important to do so. 

Somenthing cool I saw on a video essay a long time ago about "Funny games" was how the breaking of the fourth wall shifts the audience from viewing to complicity. I watched the video a very long time ago so I couldn't find it, but it is a thought that came to my mind when we came with the idea for this project. 

I'll do some research probably one movie that breaks the fourth wall and two dark comedies. 

Project planning

 

Planning and I... arent the best friends. Many times setting deadlines change how the creative proccess goes, but is somenthing that I have gotten a lot more used to. I'm a person who at the moment of writting, usually takes his sweet time making sure every aspect of the story flows well on their head, before writting, and this can affect things. If maybe they look a little different on paper, wwell you have to start change stuff. But also if you just start writting like a mad man, well... that first draft will be way worse. This is somenthing that lowkey applies to every stage of production. 

So with that in mind after planning during Wednesday, we have decided to use a 2 - 2 - 2. Two weeks to write, two weeks to shot, and the rest for postproduction. This talks a lot of the main product being the shortfilm. But the social media campaign and the other marketing properties are included here. This will give us our sweet time to dont rush anything, and if we finish faster, well is extra time we get to use on improving the next stage, or more time for the marketing aspect of the project. 

The distribution of tasks will also be crucial. Having a good comunication so as the story takes a route so does the marketing will save us a lot of time in preproduction. 

We will use this few days before the 26, day that all our teammembers and I have a fieldtrip to STN, to plan a clear route for the story. So once we come back we can lock in, in working from it. 

I will like to give my all during planning so once we start doing the project, I wont feel that we could've made it better. Sinse we are giving our best.