Explaining and Analyzing Script

“Writing is the painting of the voice.” This is a phrase said by Voltaire and it’s true. Sometimes people do not know what they are thinking or they cannot even organize their thoughts, and writing is a great way to do so. Just as having a beautiful way of showing your perspective to the world. Just as films do. Every little thing on a film should be thought this way, to convey or express a feeling. That’s exactly what I want to do with the script of my opening film. I want it to be art, to make it beautiful, and meaningful. I don’t want to just say words because they make sense but I want to say words to add or increment even more an idea and feeling.

So as promised in my last post, here is the script of my film in English version (which makes me remember that I need to research about film subtitles). I didn’t want to spoil the full picture so I am not showing the original picture but hope you like these one!

Voice-Over (Adriel) Translated
I’ve always been a religious man. Just like my past ancestors, excluding my parents, they raised me according to the world of God. Maybe that’s why I can actually see the evil in humanity and they can’t. Sometimes I doubt and think; maybe I’m the one who is wrong, but after all the pain I’ve felt… ( scene where parents are figuring)… there is no way to see that from the side of good. The silence that the acid rain left, which was sent by the Lord to kill humanity, is not louder than my hatred for all those last people who ruined my life. It is as if the few humans hiding have added all the evil of those who left. I am Adriel whom God brought to a place of suffering to end the wickedness of the world, to end with what the lord started, and he will save me, just as he did with Noah millions of years ago. 

It is not confirmed that these will be the one being used as the film might need to be adjusted with more shots or less. I neither want the voice over to be on my whole opening so I timed me reading the script as if I would be actually saying it on the film so that I even know what to tell my brother how to say words in a specific way so that it also convey each strong emotion.

But for understanding each emotion I must analyze and explain the most important phrases said, and lets start with “always been a religious man.” It mainly highlights the context of his life. Some background that shows why he believes like he is now. In the same way the second part of this sentence says “like my ancestors” which shows how the religion has always been in his family so he should not be different, indeed he should be better as they all have been trying to be taught better but late we see his parents arguing so they broke the perfect line and that is why he has a misunderstanding of the bible and his beliefs. It conveys the idea that not even him understands himself. Just as he later says “Maybe that’s why I can see…” which show how he doubts about his beliefs as he deep inside feels as he is not right. The word pain compared to the action being shown in the scene right after shows how hurt he is and surrounding all his actions and reasons by blaming it all in just on point: the pain that people in his life had caused him. Later on, the character’s hatred is being compared with a loud sound indicating its intensity. As well the silence is compared to all those death people caused by the natural disaster that it is believed to have been sent by God. This is to imply that now the world is silent as there are not many people left, but his anger has never been bigger for them as they been more inhuman than ever. The simile used after this sentence simply increments this feeling as it compares a “fake” situation to what us actually happening which could imply that he is assuming his thoughts and might not be truthful. In another way he uses negative words such as “evil”, “hatred”, “silence”, or “kill” to imply the hurtful and revengeful tone. The last sentence simply explains what he believes his roll in the movie is and why does he believe in so. It overall compares how the first scenes of the bible verses with the story of Noah are related to this main character. 

Yay!!! That’s all!! I hope you liked my point of view and I’m so happy to share my thoughts with you. I hope to see you on next post!

SOUND IDEAS!!!

Good morning!!! I'm editing sound and doing some changes with the videos, such as using zooming, slow-motion, cutting some shots, erasing others, etc. I'm loving how while editing the sound I am noticing what things I am doing right and the one that not that much. I can see easier the things that I am missing and the extra ones as I can a see a fuller picture of the whole opening. 

I remembered that my teacher said that we are allowed to use other audios as long as we site them. So I started researching for some background music to put in the part where the text of the bible appears with the fire match while thinking about my last research where the music was like a soft continues violin mixed with other instrument. While I was searching, I decided to take screenshots of the audios that I was downloading, to use them as I needed to site the page of where I was taking the sound out of and I knew I was snot going to remember. After along search of finding the perfect audio for that part, looking through piano, violin, country music, outdoor space, wind, and many other sounds, I decided to move on as I knew I was taking way too much time on this and I still needed to find the synchronous sounds. Of course you should carefully consider the sound, but making sure that you are balancing your time is important, too. I went through different free sound platforms such as Mixkit, Freesound, and Pixabay. The one that I liked the most was totally mixkit, but they all helped me find sounds that I needed. Yet it was easier for me to download and edit the ones that I took out of this platform. 

I was also considering using my own sounds and film it with Voice Memos, because I usually record some of my free time songs there and it helps me a lot to erase background sounds, skip silence, and make the slower or faster. I'm thinking of just recording the sound of the shoes running on the grass and on the cement by grabbing sport shoes and hitting them in the ground as if my hands where running with shoes on them. I still found a sound that matches with the ones from the video, but while I was editing I saw it more harder to match with the actual action, so I might just put my phone on the ground next to my hand with the shoe, while the video is playing for me too coordinate in that scene and make the action exactly when it is happening. This would be way easier and better.

While I was searching for background music, I also found a wind sound and that made me remember of my very first shot where I was thinking of adding the sound of a fire match lighting on. I found a perfect one in pixabay.com this gave a great introduction to my scene as I coordinated it with the sound of passing the match through the striking surface and then a soft blow as the fire in the match is moving on slow motion. The sound foreshadows the lighting of the match to later compare the fire with destruction to show a little bit of the genre of my film. 

Later as I was watching some opening from films mentioned in my last posts, an idea popped in my head. Heart beat sounds while he is running! It is perfect as it implies that he is getting tired but not just because he is running but his heart is driving him to act a certain way and do something that is making him scared. This also alerts my audience and puts tension into it. The heart beat would start softly then slowly higher and this would be compared with the action of him running and then going slower coming to a stop. This is to convey the idea that sometimes what he is showing and thinking might not be the truth in his heart and he is pushed to act in unexpected ways. This also shows that he is not normal and sometime his thought and feelings are opposite to any human left in the world. 

While I was re-watching the introduction of the film Divergent (2014) as I remembered that I was thinking of using a voiceover of my brother talking and explaining a little about what he thinks his purpose and thoughts are. In this film mentioned, the first word's start as "We are lucky to be in the city" which bring some context, environment, and emotions, as it shows how she is grateful even with the harsh events the main character is going through. I feel like my main character should start the opposite way and then show his gratefulness with God to convey his hate to humanity. I had several ideas like this while I was listening to the introduction so I decided to do a script and put in parenthesis the reasons of why I decided it to be this way. I am thinking of telling my brother for this to be the last thing to record as I noticed that his scenes running might need to be longer so I we might film more of those. Just that for that we would need to schedule a time again and that is a little complicated. Yet, I am always trying my best. So coming back to the topic, for the voice-over to fit into my opening, I would need to have everything done. But at least I already have the context planned and written all out. I'm looking forward to show you my script on my next post, where I will be analyzing and explaining it. So hope you give yourself some time to check it out!

 

CCR Questions Class!!

 Fun!!! I love the idea. I am so glad that every time there is more work for this project I like it. It’s like Cambridge adds work but it always is to make our project more perfect each time. Of course, there’s no such thing as perfection, but we definitely can keep making something better. 

Ms. Stoklosa gave us a class explaining the Creative Critical Reflection Questions. She included; what they are, why are we doing this, and examples of how to do them. From all the lessons, what stuck in my head the most was to be CREATIVE. I understood that I must show something unique, fun, and exciting.

I understood that these questions were analyzing and explaining my film. I know I must convey each feeling from the movie by using the techniques I learned. Yet, I also find it essential to demonstrate my track of thinking and my point of view as some things can both be right, but I want to show my emotional knowledge of the piece that I created. 

There are a total of 4 questions. In class, I was writing everything down. The thoughts I had, what was on the board, and even the most important things that my teacher said while also the ones that I noticed in each sample. One of these that was highlighted the most was that we must not show just a talking head. This means that we must always try to incorporate pictures relating to the explanation or examples of what is being talked about, research in an organized and understandable way, and short shots from the actual opening we are creating. This is all to keep the audience engaged by creating an entertaining environment concerning my project.

This also leads me to talk about how the techniques or type of media that I use must relate somehow to what I am to add a touch of uniqueness and show who the creator really is and likes. For this, I understand that I have to analyze myself more. This is always the hardest part for me. I remember this time I was doing my resume for a competition and I realized that I had to find what was more significant in my life and choose. But, for me choosing was always hard as I am passionate about several things. So for that, I decided to make a list of things that I like doing or just in general, even if they have nothing to do with the film because I know that is where the greatest ideas could sometimes come from. 

Indeed, they came from my great idea of taking notes. As you can see above, I first listed the "things that I like doing" and then the "ideas related to likes." This helped me organize my thoughts and from all the things I listed the idea that I love the most was the idea of having a "conversation" with my dog about the topic so for this it occurred to me that I would do a script of the things that we are both saying, one I would say it in camera and then the other one I would film my dog doing something, like moving around, or doing cute poses as he always does, and then I would add a voice over to fake his voice. This sounds so fun and exciting, I think it is going to look amazing. Looking forward to posting more about it, so stay updated!

Filming + Realization moments

 There’s always an order in everything in life. In this case I plan, I film, and then I edit. Yet, no one really talks about the failures. Maybe people just want to show the perfect track to get to the outcome…, but I think failing is the most important part where you learn from and can see what one can correct or not.

For filming, my brother, my mom, and me drove to the location described in the last post. There I showed my brother how he was supposed to act. I must say that we were in a hurry because he was very sleepy but he put the effort in and I am thankful for that. Yet, it was harder because as I was editing a little after to see the whole picture, and I noticed that there was some colors changed in the background as the shots got closer. I took a lot of extra shots because I was worried that these would happen but still not all of them worked. So I have two options; taking the shots again, or editing them with filters and exposure. I find the first option more complicated so I was editing it and here are some changes and options of colors that I was seeing, meaning the process, so you can check it out. 

Another thing that I noticed and I am proud of everyone that helped me out with it, was that the bullying and fighting scenes were perfectly produced. They fit into the bad memories as I directed my brother to kind of look down at the end so that this shot is compared with the one where Dani is looking down while his parents are arguing.  This editing technique compares moments from present and past to convey the idea that even though he is not in the same time, the feelings always stay there ones heart

One part where I was also struggling a lot was the part between filming and editing, sending the videos my laptop, and then to my phone. There storage in Dropbox is not that big compared to all the videos that I wanted to use to check which one fit better. So had to erase some videos, send a part first and then another checking all the time the colors, movements, positions, emotions, etc.

To add, I am so proud of how I did when editing the fight scene to make the voices and actions match as like I said on a post, I took shots from different angles and I was worried that the words were not the same. Yet, most of the words where and sounded exactly the same so I was able to match each one with their next shot. You can see below how the loudness of the voice can be seen in the blue line.

I must add the fact that I had fun while doing this project as at first it was really hard to stop laughing while filming as I had to see my brother really serious and he is a super happy and positive person (not counting when he’s mad of course). I am so proud of everyones job in this project, as it was hard to control everything at first, but I can see myself progressing each time more, learning from my mistakes, and finding solutions to each problem. Lets hope to see more of this, so keep up with my posts!!

Mise-en-scene

Today is filming day with my brother!!! I don’t think I am ready. I want to focus more on having every object, lighting, costumes, and everything in the frame ready to just film. 

I’ve been researching different movies and scenes for dystopian genres and I should know what characteristics are involved inside of those shots, but I haven’t really put the time in organizing my mind. For that I decided to list each scene and movie I’ve watched and then just add different characteristics in it and just list them down.

I started with the short film that won an Oscar Nomination and is on Netflix called the After. This isn’t really a dystopian film but it relates as it explains how it is like the end of the world for the main character. Just like in my film. This is the last film I’ve watched and recommended already several times because it touched my heart and made me cry. This movie reflects how small acts can make someone break down after one was carrying such a hurtful “weight”, it implies how sometimes it is needed for someone to break down and cry to continue with life. This is the feeling I want to create! If they did it in 18 minutes, why would I not be able to imply one feeling in 2 minutes. Everything is possible. I can do this. 

Continuing to talk more about the mise-en-scene that conveyed this emotions, I added a short explanation of each characteristic that I found in each film and I wrote it in the notes. For example the film the After increase the emotions of the artist with these elements to relate with the audience as leaving an explanation of how life continues after harsh situations. This is done by using brighter colors more at the end, implying that life around is still moving even if he is still stuck in a sad memory. I followed the same thinking track for all the other films I watched, including Divergent and the Intro to the Hunger Games as well as to the Giver film. Here! You can check the process in this picture.

To come to a conclusion I decided to start to think about my brother’s costume to conveyed several ideas and make him look more serious. I decided that black clothes would imply darkness inside of his heart and anger. I told him to wear all black but the shoes as I needed them to highlight so that the running action could be more easily noticed so he found some green (which sometimes imply hate and disgust as in the inside-out film) shoes that are phosphorescent and they project more light and even if it starts to get dark they will be scene. The earring was another thing that my brother put for this scene as it would make him look more “rebel” as it is usually seen like that now in our society. This would connect with our rebel audience as it would show how he is independent and he can do whatever he wants like pierce his ear (and how knows what other things…) The next thing that was implemented into the scene not on purpose but fitted perfect so I didn’t cover it was the “cut” in his brow as it would imply also how revel or dangerous he is as highlighted the harsh events that he’s been through in his past. 

Continuing to think about more elements, I needed to focus more on the environment and place of this scene. I must say it was harder because the option I had decided before was not matching with my lighting of the sun, as I wanted a darker scene where the sun would be going down or raising but Markham park which was the entrance to that trail of bicycles where no trees are seen would be opened just for day light hours. So my brother, my mom, and me started driving around looking for places and we found a part next to that track next to the Everglades that had nothing more but connection posters and a little green hill that because of the dark lighting didn’t appear that green. It was perfect as it was right next to the highway and there was a places where we could stop the car and it wouldn’t be that dangerous as cars are passing by. OF COURSE, I am keeping my actor and me safe. 

I have everything ready now for filming this afternoon. I plan on explaining my brother every shot and how he is supposed to act so that I get there and we take less time and less risks. SO EXCITED!!! Wish me luck!! Hope to see you tomorrow on my next post where I will give me update of how this filming went.

Resources!!!

Location of Markham Park found at:

https://markhampark.com/biking/

(This when I knew I couldn’t go there)

(A realization moment)

A Little More

More Research!!! I was totally forgetting about the title. I think it is also very importan (although I say everything is important in every blog), but I feel like the title gives a complex feeling of what the movie is about in just some decisions made. Choosing the style, the color, how it will appear, maybe special effects can be hard too. So I had to research. Not just for the title but also for the credits.

I asked Dani (Adriel) for a dystopian movie that he liked and he said “The Giver”. I’ve never watched it but I already hear of it and I think it is well known so there must be a reason for that. As I was watching the

The Giver movie - the opening scene / when the world was without colors and without feelings, I noticed that it contained similar characteristics of what I was filming about too, so I am glad I am in a good track. The voiceover while the guy is riding the bike is similar as the one I am going to do as well as adding some context in the beginning without almost no sound. Yet, mine fits better with my film as it contains a “Times New Roman” style with a orangish background, while the one in the movie is pure black and white.

When I looked at the title I knew it was coming but it was still unexpected. That is a feeling that I want to create in my film. For this I am going to implement the title in a timing that is not showing an end but is neither at the beginning, so at the time when my main character is running. I had a great idea from the group meeting we did and it was that the camera could be filming from a low angle, almost in the floor, and then as my brother is running he steps on it. The screen turns black and then the title appears. In the opening from The Giver film they use white letters with a short black outlining them mostly from one side to pretend like they are standing out and they are all in caps, which I am definitely thinking to include. While the title appears, there is a background showing the trees from the bottom point of view as the sun traspases the leaves to create a sense of being alive and an environment. I want to create the same feeling.

I’ve been just thinking about the aesthetic of the title, but what about the actual name of it?! I know it has to have something to do with the overall plot of my film, so let’s just see what it is about again. A man who is hurt and blames it on all humanity as he thinks that all that he has received from people is hate. He is also “religious” but he is misunderstanding the bible and wrongly matching it with what is happening right now as the whole world is already destroyed. Some things are coming to my mind after a long reflection of the opening of the film The Giver. I started taking some notes of my thoughts and I came up with this above. 

While searching for synonyms from word to word I found  the word “Pariah” meaning someone that is usually despised. It fits perfect with my plot and I realized this when I look for images of the world and found this one that looks like the shot that I filmed when he was wrongly treated when he was a child and everyone is in a circle pointing at him in the middle just as in my film. I am not sure if I want to just call my film Pariah as although it describes how is treated it doesn’t really show what his thoughts or desires are, as the film is about his purpose now in life more than his past. I would like somehow mix the two words. So, I did another list to see how this combination sounds. 

I started watching the opening of this other film called Hunger Games. I need to have clear thoughts and watching this scene made me remember how important the sound is to a film and even the part where the title is implemented so I must think about something that matches and also conveys the feeling that I want to create. In this part it started in a similar way as The Giver and Hunger Games had almost the same style of letters but I am not sure if I want that. It would look so simple in my opening. I was sure that I don’t want the title to be long as the short one makes it more impactful and highlights the most. To end, I researched apps where I could design the title to see what options I have because then maybe Im thinking about doing more when I gotta see the resources I have as my budget is not high. After thinking about doing them on Canva and searching for other options I found this page where they showed some title of some songs and gave me some ideas as there was this one where it said “The Peripheral” and one letter was vertically written and matching the other from the world that is horizontally. I found this inspiring as this creates a mood of advanced society and technology and utopia. I think if I do something creative like this as making one letters upside down or the whole title reflecting like in the mirror, it could make it look less simple but not that extravagant. Great ideas. 

Now, for the design I decided to use Kittl, which is a free website to design, but it wasn’t available to use on phone and just laptop, so I kept researching. I started watching this video on YouTube and I realized that the title was being created on the premiere app just that in the laptop and there were so many thing that one could change. I opened the app and started trying everything that had to do with a title and after moving things around I came up with this perfect idea. The title is “A Pariahs Belief” but the combination of styles between each word are supposed to convey a certain idea. For instance, the “A” separated the most from the 2 other words convey the idea of how lonely my main character “the pariah” feels. I made “Belief” thinner but bigger to highlight the idea that his beliefs and thoughts are the one controlling him but its not their story but the film is about him. Here you can see how it ended up looking. Hope to see you on my next post!!!

Resources!!!

- The Giver movie - the opening scene / when the world was without colors and without feelings

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cFsTf9NQlFI

- List of films: A-Z

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films:_A

-Opening Scene from the Hunger Games

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p51D9dOqz9s

- Kittl To Design

https://www.kittl.com/article/how-to-create-your-own-movie-title-design-in-kittl

- The peripheral (2022)

The art of the Title

https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-peripheral/

-How to create big cinematic film trailer title

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql-v3Lu515M&pp=ygUbV2VicyB0byBkZXNpZ24gYSBmaWxtIHRpdGxl

2nd Day of Filming

 Wowowowow! I was so scared of what could happen. There were so many things that could go wrong. Some "actors" could not come with the right clothes. They might not be putting in enough effort. We might not have time enough to film. Some people could cancel last minute. The camera could break. The sound could have not been filmed. But in the end, one learns from each mistake. Yet, I didn't want to have many. Mistakes did occur. There were some that I was able to control, others that we just had to manage to deal with, others that we couldn't do anything about, and others that got me so stressed because I was scared of what I was missing. 

I made a group chat on WhatsApp as I have already communicated with my friends through this medium, and I asked them to help me with the project. I gave several specifications on the chat of time, clothes, and context so that they have an idea of how it is supposed to look so that they can help me even more. The time was at 5 o'clock. Yet no one really came on time, which I was already not expecting so that's why I suggested that time so in any case we could still use the whole day. I might say nothing went according to the plan. I was so thankful with Dani, the small version of my main character. He was the first one to arrive and even helped finish looking at the bullying scenes. I must say that none of them really got to look how I wanted it to look, so I had to force myself to explain each detail so that everyone understood how I wanted it to look. 

Dani had 2 scenes, yet I thought we were just gonna do one today. The bullying scene. Everyone ended up coming half an hour later than expected, but guess who was my lifesaver. Tatan! Or Sebastian, my church friend, and my brother's "gym bro". He came with his brother's girlfriend, Anto. She is the mother of the main character who was gonna fight with her husband, but we were missing her boyfriend, who was gonna act as the husband. The scene was one where we would show Adriel (Dani) listening to his parent's arguments and being heartbroken by their words. Tatan replaced Milo, Anto's boyfriend so that we could get over those scenes as we had the character and they were around the same age, looked like parents, and were good at fighting with each other. They indeed did an amazing job even when everyone was arriving and cutting my perfect lighting. But everyone that arrived was helping me with different little jobs to get the scene to look better. We used so many random things that I found at my house to cover the light, bring light, and make Dani look more childish, such as giving him one of my brother's toys and Romeo, my dog, which acted really well.

Ms. Stoklosa told me we could curse, and at first, I thought we would barely do it but we might need to increase the heartbreaking tone of Adriel's past life. They went deep into the character and I might not be professional but it was great acting. Yet, I still helped them look better by seeing the overall picture and giving some advice, such as moving more with the hand or looking away like they do not care what each one in the argument is saying, accentuating each word, which was stressing me a little as after I realized that if I was filming from different angles, I would have to match the voices, but I knew that the sound was still gonna be like an echo and I have time to ask them to come to my house and just record a voice-over. I know it would be harder so I will discuss it in another post. In this scene, I used different techniques in each shot, such as low angle to increase their power and how scary the situation and the argument are for Adriel. I included a tilt-up with a pan left shot, first focusing on Adriel to then the couple arguing. This shows the context of everything that is happening and where everyone is set. It was important to show that Adriel was behind the armchair as he was hiding and over listening to a conversation that it is obvious that anyone, especially a kid his age should hear, but obviously the couple were too busy fighting to care about their child. I included some close-ups of each person arguing so that it is more focused because it was harder to zoom in and focus at the same time in such a short shot. Besides, it would highlight each character's emotions by showing their facial expressions which they acted with really good angry faces.

The second scene was more fun to film, but harder to control. Tatan left to work, but I had my small version of my main character, Dani, then Naty who helped with the lighting, Trini, my best friend, her cousin, my brother who helped me giving advice too, and Anto who was now going to help me with the high angle of the kids around Adriel, bullying him. My friends now started arriving. Ari, Ampi, Joshua, Sebas, and Vale, all wanted to receive credits so I'm going to talk with my teacher about it and see what I can do. Most of them brought their backpacks to pretend that this was after school and came with a white shirt and jeans, for those who didn't have what was needed I provided them with what I had. The shots were good, but the lighting was a little hard as we filmed in my garage and used 3 people with their phones' flashlights on, from the side to show a scary environment but not that dark as we needed to see what was happening. Yet, the harder part was to control each movement as the idea was to fake a bullying scene but not actually hit Dani. To organize each movement I told Joshi to first push Dani towards Sebas softly so that Dani exaggerates the movement and the Sebas to grab his backpack and push him again to the opposite side. The circle started big until while Dani was going down it started to get closer. I filmed from two perspectives, high angle, and from a side view, I think I might need also a close-up of Dani covering himself and I'm so mad at myself for forgetting, but it is ok, I have time, and I can still ask some people to come and cover the light a bit and around to show the same environment and just the close up of Dani. I want to see that more later though because I might not need many shots as I still need to film my brother's main parts and see how the time limit is going. To end you can see some previews of the back-scene video, including materials used and people on the stage. Hope to see you around for the main character's filming post. I am thankful for everyone's collaboration in these and hope to continue like this for my next scenes.