Editing

I’ve done the majority of the editing at this point and I’m not disappointed. I was worried that the shots taken weren’t enough despite practically filming everything twice. I’m well aware that none of my cameras hold a candle to a DSLR or even an AC-80 (which I have experience from in the TV club/class) but the shots were fairly decent. I’ll probably go more in-depth with my CCR but I’m not disgusted by my creation; in fact, I might be proud. 

I’m not praising it as my greatest art piece but I’m confident that this is a fair representation of the skills I’ve been taught in Media Studies AS. 

After hours of keying, cropping, and cutting in Davinci Resolve all I have left is to officially decide my music. In all honesty, I’ve been avoiding talking and adding official labels about the music because I wasn’t sure if the voiceover and the diegetic sound from the environment would be enough. I wanted to get a feel as to where this is going in order to pick which music I will officially implement into the final product. I have a bias towards one of the songs but I want to check its royalty-free guidelines before I wholeheartedly commit to using this music. I’ll be sure to let you know. Until next time!!! :)

Filming

Today I filmed all that I planned to. Needless to say, not everything was particularly flawless which is what I expected going into this project on my own. In all honesty, my shots that had to be set up with a tripod were absolute poop!!! But I can’t give myself all the credit, the timing of my family and the time of day were all contributing factors to the disaster shoot. The whole reason I chose my backyard was to have a controlled area but alas my naivete knows no bounds; my family recently decided on the morning of my shooting to move the trampoline in my backyard. Moving it so close to the hammock stole away my vision of a beautiful longshot of my backyard which would cut multiple times to move in on my character, establishing their lively environment. 

It wasn’t a total bust. I was later able to enlist the help of my sister to hold the camera. Being a novice with a camera, I had to be incredibly specific on how I wanted these shots to be. And even with proper guidance filming wasn’t without problems; my other sister and rambunctious puppy made sure of that. One with the desire to be a part of everything and the other who just wants to eat. I predict that there will be a lot of sound being cut out. 

    For the shots I mentioned earlier, the visuals only offer footage for my attempted set up at the beginning and provided some beautiful diegetic sound for the outside; the birds must’ve been having a concert. 

Things seem to be on track! Until next time! :)

Storyboard Pt. II

Continuing the storyboard:

Storyboard Pt. I

So as promised in the first part of the Storyboard of course a lot of these images will not be what’s in the opening but it’s more like conceptual visuals. 

Screenplay

Here is my screenplay as scheduled on the chart. Now I won’t do any more talking (typing?) than necessary so let’s just jump right in:

Opening Scene Tomatoes

[Tight Shot from High Angle]

A tomato is placed on a cutting board. 

VO Begins The fruit of a plant is the carrier of the seed. The seed: new life. 

A hand goes off-screen returning with a large butcher knife.

-Black Screen- [Fade in] Credits

VO Continues To be eaten for another to survive. That’s how it works. A life for a life. An eye for an eye. An arm for ahead.

A knife is guided to rub the tomato (almost sensually) with the hand steadying it.

-Black Screen- [Fade in] Credits

 VO Continues Fruits are naturally bright.  Enticing. Juicy. It is fate that the fruit is consumed; it’s their purpose. And the job of a predator is to consume the fruit; after all, it is their desire. 

Then the cut of the tomato right down the middle (swift chop). 

Slicing continues choosing a half (slice horizontal). Continue slicing until small pieces. 

Dice remaining bits 

[Wide-Establishing Shot of Backyard] 

[Wide Shot of Marlyn on a hammmock]

[Closeup of Marlyn’s face]Her face is stoic, reflective.

[Over the Shoulder of her writing]

[Extreme Closeup] Marlyn’s eyes look up to the camera.

-Black Screen-[Fade-in] Title of Movie 

Script for VO (voiceover)

Abiding by the schedule here is the script for the VO:

VO: The fruit of a plant is the carrier of the seed. The seed: new life. 

[Pause]

VO: Fruits are naturally bright.  Enticing. Juicy. It is fate that the fruit is consumed; it’s their purpose. And the job of a predator is to consume the fruit; after all, it is their desire. 

VO: To be eaten for another to survive. That’s how it works. A life for a life. An eye for an eye. An arm for ahead. 

Of course, this is just a piece that will be incorporated into the screenplay which will explain the overlay of the VO and the visuals that accompany it. This is the only spoken part that will be heard in the opening and will probably be heard with the quiet fade-in of one of the pieces I selected in previous posts. I hope to figure out which piece by tomorrow. Until next time! :)

Final Stretch

The time I plan to film is becoming even closer and the final parts of pre-production will need to be completed. I’m going to layout the official plan for the next couple of days leading to filming; so stay tuned!

Tuesday	Script for VO
Wednesday	Screen Play
Thursday	Storyboard Pt. I
Friday	Storyboard Pt. II

The schedule above is a rough schedule I have to leave the weekend open for the filming. I split the storyboard because it should take up a good chunk of the blog page and I don’t want to overload anybody. If time permits me I would like to reflect before I have to go out to film but there is no guarantee considering how time-consuming the trip will be for this break. Either way, I plan to be productive and maintaining the themes throughout the written parts of the script and screenplay.  Until next time! :)

Genre and Preparation

   During my classes introduction to the CCR or Creative Review focuses on the genre is very important as well as its conventions and how you are going to break them. I'm eager to represent the thriller genre because it is overlooked or misinterpreted as horror when thrillers are known to play a viewer's interest and anticipation. 

    To prepare for the CCR and just to make the concept easier to look at I organized to help me organize my thoughts. Again using a favorite tool of mine as a genre-organizer: Canva.

Beginning of Spring Break

 With the beginning of Spring Break being in full swing in a normal situation, I’d have plenty of time but I do not. Per (strong) suggestion from my guardian I will be traveling throughout the state visiting colleges. With a constant change in scenery and the majority of the props at home, I’ve ruled out the possibility of moving the filming to another place.

Just because I’m on break doesn’t mean I won’t have to work I plan to work on the more specific tools to have before filming: scripting, storyboarding, and editing. In a later post, I’ll go into depth on the plans for achieving these final steps before actually filming. I also want to reflect on all the preparation I’ve done so far. I hope with all the traveling I will have to do that I will still have enough time to relax and focus on my mental health. Until next time!!! :)

Moodboards for Marlyn

Using Canva I created some mood boards for my character Marlyn that highlight the color scheme and major themes in the opening.

Sound Samples Pt.ll

As promised I’ve returned with more samples for sound. I’ve decided it wouldn’t hurt to compile some diegetic sounds in case the scene called for it. In-depth I mean to prepare to capture whatever my filming doesn’t capture-as they say it’s better to be prepared now than sorry later.

First thing first, *Knife Sounds* with the crucial motif of killing signified in the beginning by the cutting of the tomato its vital that I have this. Again the filming, will hopefully, pick it up but should the slicing be too quiet or not heard at all this will come in handy. To begin the search I headed to my favorite place to find anything I want: Youtube. As per usual it did not disappoint with so many different compilations of Copyright-free knife sounds. And the knife to flesh title of course matches up with the theme of it being the tool to cause death. With such a large variety in one place, I almost don’t want to look anywhere else. For now, I’ll accept this and I will expand on it later if need be.

    

    The next resource for Copyright-free was recommended to me in class; it’s called CHOSIC.com. The website has a vast degree of different songs that can fit many different genres. Covering lots of genres but not a thriller; the closest I could get to the genre is between Mystery and Horror. In both sections, I found a song that has an eerie but oddly calming (maybe only to me) named: Come Play with Me. A lot of the others are very intense and don’t really match the energy of hidden darkness that I want to convey.

The Final Touches and Changes?

As the due date for the opening nears I’ve made a point to finalize my props, costumes, and settings. Thus I’ve selected my ‘stage’ for the writing of the character. And to show the finality of it I have pictures to demonstrate:

Here I have the tree where Marlyn will be (minus the blue tarp), unfortunately, an unforeseen addition has been added to the midst. Unexpectedly my mother brought back a hammock from her travels in hopes of giving my family another place to rest; this can add a new element to the production as well as complicate it. 

Add to it by providing alternative camera angles that may make the shot more interactive, and add to aesthetics. Complicated because filming by myself is near impossible at the height that the hammock is on the tree. I do have my family group at my disposal though and I may have to (begrudgingly) enlist their help. 

But I have another site that would work just as fitting for my needs. And it is this one:

Granted it's not nearly as engaging as my original idea and the updated one. Until next time! :)

Sound & Samples Pt.I

The voice-over I plan to do is going to be the only sound before the use of thematic sound to promote the idea of life and its fragility. This sound will probably be the cutting of the fruit. I expect my sound to be diegetic, filmed along with the footage. If need be I could make foley sound for everything I don’t get when I film. 

Music, similar to ‘Gone Girl,’ comes after the bone-chilling voiceover which adds the perfect blend of eeriness as tight shots are taken of the surrounding landmarks. I want the music to have a building-up feeling to it, almost like a Shepard tone, to make the audience more suspenseful with the pretense of something coming suggested by the music. Now with limited talent and no skill in composing music the best way for me to get this music is through the beloved and hated crutch of the world: the internet. More specifically youtube, where I can easily type in traits of a noncopyrighted music piece to find, listen to, and download. 

Doing just that I typed: “build up copyright free music” into the search bar of youtube. And as a child of the internet only could, within seconds thousands of options had appeared and my search began. The first one I listened to definitely had the build-up I was looking for but the bass throughout the track was so strong and bold. I felt that it might be too much for a thriller like the one I’m teasing; it was akin to a movie about superheroes. Like anything I mention on here, it’s always a possibility but for the aforementioned reasons, I doubt it.

After scrolling a bit under the same string of words I found a teetering option. Teetering, because it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for but I found it to fit the bill of ‘bone-chilling.’ This piece is eerie but calm and doesn’t have as heightened energy as a piece with a Sheperd’s Tone. Oddly enough this is very similar to ‘Gone Girl’ but more sinister; I’m all for it.

I’ll probably continue my search in another post but until another day. Au Revoir!

Themes Motifs and things to focus on

As mentioned in the last post I discussed themes centered around the vibrancy of life in comparison to fruit. The voiceover would be heavy with this, comparing the two as if they were the same thing. 

To explain this theme I refer to Marlyn’s character profile where I stated that Marlyn will be struggling with ‘her teetering will to dominate over others and do things simply because she can.’ This domination that she craves would be rewarded to her by killing someone, according to her sibling in a mental asylum. Other than her own damaged conscience the only other sibling that acts as a moral compass is her second-eldest sister; who acts as a moral compass and active pacifist in the remains of their family. I almost didn’t want to mention her complex background but it’s needed to justify my actions in making Marlyn’s motives.

To explain the actual comparison I want to acknowledge the usually bright colors that fruits adorn in hopes of being consumed to fertilize and spread the seed. Purposely making themselves lush and lively in hopes of attracting a predator's attention and even during consumption offers an addictive taste that makes avid eaters of those who try them. This vulnerable and attractive state of fruits is synonymous with a human’s way of life and the natural need to call predators in is unavoidable. 

In the last post, I mentioned the possible use of a syringe this could also foreshadow the method used to do the deed Marlyn struggles with. I digress, I planned to use an apple or tomato; both being fruits perfect for representing life. Apple easily equates to life-based on the popular depiction from the Bible as well as just the staple for most fruits in popularity. A tomato on the other hand isn’t as weighty in terms of symbolism, I solely chose this fruit because of its red color and the matching juices that can depict blood. This depiction of blood is the perfect unsettling and eye-catching feature that not only serves a purpose in the story but as a symbol. The syringe is for the addition of ‘blood’ so that the effect is as powerful as I want it to be. I’m still debating on whether this syringe will be used and what further testing will be recorded.