Props 🎬

 Hey fellas, today the blog entry is about props! One of the most important things in film production. Props are the small details the tell stories most of the time, like a broken mirror in a teenage movie where the main character hates herself, or a scrapped car in the driveway of a not-so-lucky family... Small details that say a LOT of the setting, characters, moods and society.

For starters, a prop that I will be using is the pills orange canister, I don't think I have any of those at home but I will probably buy one at my local Wallgreens thats quite similar, because the color its not only really iconic, but it also stands out since I plan on doing the color tone really monochrome and neutral. However, the pills canister would be full of smarties, an easy solution to replace the pills for something that looks like a pill but isn't deadly to my lead actor. 😬

 This is a picture of the candy that will replace the pills in the canister. Safe and yummy, unless you don't brush your teeth after, in that case it's not that safe.

Another prop I will like to introduce into the opening would be the back pack Ash is using, for it, I have in mind a mickey mouse back pack my brother has... It's not that neutral since it uses red, this is also kind of ironic since the red is quite expressive, something that Ash really isn't. However, the red color would be a great color to introduce in bits throughout the 2 minutes. 

I haven't decided much on the rest of the props, I'm a bit of a creative soul, so I like to add as I create. But my main focus is to make the colors neutral so they don't stand out except in special occasions, and the same goes with the backgrounds. The focus should always stay on Ash and what he sees.

Let's continue... 🎬

 I have been watching a bunch of film openings this weekend to do some research about what else could I add to my story board, and for starters, I need to introduce the source of Ash's fears, the pills.

I feel like it would be cool to introduce them while he is drawing in the kitchen, kind of doing a focus pull that goes from Ash drawing, to the pills that are closer to the camera. But, as I was looking for inspiration for this scene, I found this gif.

This encouraged me to try and do the same but with a twist. Instead of the picture of a family showing, a shadow would be behind Ash as he is finishing to take his pills.

Doing this, helps me to introduce a bit more of his paranormal experiences, how he deals with them, and allows me to show more of his daily routine as the small child he is, taking care of himself. 

Aside from this also helping me reach the 2 minutes for the film opening, I wanted to make Ash's personality quiet and kid-mature, what I mean by this, is that Ash is going to try to act like an adult. This results in him doing adult chores and decisions but as the child he is, solving problems with the mind of a child. This is to show how he was never actually told how to do things the proper way since he didn't really have any kind of paternal figure, just his aunt, who never really took actual care of him.

The mirror scene is key, since it will show Ash's "drug," effects and how he handles it.

I imagine this scene being something like this: Ash enters the bathroom, he climbs up on top of the toilette and then on to the sink (this is a small reference of how he is still a kid) then, when Ash is in front of the mirror, we see his reflection through the mirror, he is emotionless, then he opens the mirror and takes the pills, after swallowing one, he puts the canister back and closes the mirror. This time we see Ash's reflection again, but with a shadow behind it, Ash acknowledges it and widens his eyes, then, slowly turns around and gets off the sink as if it wasn't really that big of a deal.

My choice of shots for this angle are either an over the shoulder scene during the whole thing or introducing close ups of Ash climbing the toilette, taking out the pills on his hand, leaving the canister inside again...

Here are some images to visualize the key scene better.

The start of the storyboard 🎬

 For today's post I will be introducing you the storyboard I made for this film opening.

The first scenes will consist on showing the setting, therefore, I will introduce the neighborhood,  and Ash. I'm no artist 😅 but I hope this sketches help you visualize the scenes better!

The first shot would be a low angle long shot of a swing swinging (alone or with kids playing around, depends on the amount of people at the park)

A close up scene of a cars wheel passing by some leaves 

Plants moving with the air (3/4 rule)

high angle of Ash drawing then leaving the kitchen table so drawing is visible

Close up of Ash's school back pack --> Ash grabs it and leaves through the door

Pan close up of Ash's shoes to introduce a bit more about him, basically to show how his shoes aren't really new, nor clean, because no one actually takes cares of details like that for him.

long shot of main character walking in the distance, blurred at first, then focuses on Ash as he walks to the end of the street.

This are some of the shots I have clear in mind for now.  But I will be back tomorrow with another post about how the rest of the opening elapses!!

Shooting planning 🎬

 Welcome back!! Today I was thinking on how the shooting of the film should go!

I plan on start shooting as soon as possible, however, my lead actor has a bit of a busy schedule, and Its hard to accommodate to his schedule. But i'm working on convincing his manager, our mom, to free up his day so I can film with him.

He is quite the impressive actor, but his memory isn't the best to remember lines... Therefore, the film opening would consist on only visuals and the non-diegetic background music. I wasn't really planning on having any special conversations, but I think I like the idea of conveying the mood through the vibe more than the talking. 

This would be a great experience to learn from, and for, the future. However, I still need to figure out how to make some foley sounds and when exactly to use the suspense beat drops.

This is a vid that helped me learned a bit more about foley 

Ash's backstory...🎬

 It's time to reveal Ash's full backstory and physical appearance.

For starters, Ash is a dark brown haired boy, with dark brown eyes, almost black when the light doesn't reach them. He is a boy with a bit of a mischievous face and his hair is always kind of wild and free since he lives with his aunt who doesn't really look after him. 

Aunt Mar, A 40 year old woman who never really found "the one" but still hangs out late at night at bars to go "fishing," or at least thats what she tells Ash whenever she is actually awake. Drunk. But awake. Pretty cliché right? Well, it wasn't Ash's choice to move in with his mother's sister, she was the only relative that the police could contact with after what happened to his parents. Aunt Mar has short brownish hair with a mix of ginger, don't ask, she made bad decisions when she was younger... Her eyes are always kind of puffy, but you can still appreciate the hazel color whenever she comes back home at dawn from her "fishing" sessions.

Ash's parents were happily married until one day our boy, when he was 5, woke up in the middle of the night to go sleep with his parents after hearing some screaming. To his surprise, his parents were brutally murdered in their own bed. Their bodies were torn apart limb by limb. Ash stood by the door for a minute. Not understanding what he was seeing. Shortly after that, a cold breeze entered through the open window, it wasn't open, just completely destroyed. Tears started to rain from Ash's eyes, then, a bawl that made the whole neighborhood aware of the tragedy.

Because of this, he was put under many different treatments for further trauma. However, the pills he was given by one of the doctors to relieve stress, made him start to see shadows. Although Ash never went back to being the same sunshine boy after that night, he kept taking those pills...Why? Because they actually made him feel something. That emotion was fear.

Figuring out🎬

As I was planning some of the scenes I want to incorporate into my film, I realized I would needed to cast a couple more actors to be key extras. For example, I planned on shooting a girl doing footing, 

the main character would look at her, then at her shadow. The camera would do an eye line match where it slowly does a tilt from the girl, to the floor, and stops showing the woman to show her shadow. The thing is that she apparently isn't running alone... because there is another shadow right next to her. But this is something only the main character can see.

Another scene that I might complications shooting is a creepy scene of the park, for it I would need the park to be empty, and that doesn't happen until night time, and my scene needs to be in the morning. So the only option I can think of right now is to wake up super early one day and try to film a scene on the only swings before anyone else arrives. The other issue might be waking up my brother to come help me film. Something like this is what I'm thinking about.

I was also planning on making my dad drive the car through some fallen leaves on the street, to give that "silent morning" vibe I'm going for. The the camera would do a long shot of the kid walking away through the street to the crossing walk as the camera focuses on him. Then the film opening rising scenes would start after setting the mood with the 2-3 first short scenes.

Fonts 🎬

Let's talk about fonts! They might not seem like much, but they are the key to a well-told story...

The font also provides the audience with a sneak peek of the movie, this is great for focusing on a specific genre and target audience. 

It is also important to choose a font that is easy to read for your target audience, for example, most teens now-days don't know to read calligraphy, or its simply just harder for them, therefore, they can loose interest easily when viewing titles that seem too complicated.

The font sets the mood, this also includes colors. Colors convey a lot of emotions, and they can be used in many ways to foreshadow small details. For instance, the color red can be associated to two complete opposite meanings. Love or sadistic thoughts. In cases like this, the font is what ends up determining if the film is creepy or a sweet romance.

Another cool thing about fonts is that they can be combined with lots of other characters, symbols or numbers to represent other letters. This also makes the tittle of the movie stand out more and becomes a symbol that makes the movie easy to recognize. 

The "Shrek (2001)" movie  is a great example of this, since the first letter is green and has the same ears as the main character of the film.

Pixar and their lamp as a "I" is also a really iconic example.

References: 

https://www.awebco.com/blog/why-typography-is-so-important-to-your-website-design/#:~:text=Typeface%20and%20font%20choice%20are,well%20as%20your%20target%20audience. 

https://masonmediastudies.blogspot.com/2020/03/fonts.html

Let's get started! 🎬

As I mentioned in my last post, Im planning on doing this film opening by myself, and I plan on introducing the main character's personality at the start of those 2 minutes by small details, for example the kid walking alone, seeing shadows that aren't really there... and more.

For my main character, I chose to cast my brother because he is around the same age as my protagonist and he basically does everything I say, so it would be easy to work with such a good actor. As for the setting, I would like it to be here in Weston since its surrounded by trees and it kind of gives that "trapped in," "smaller than" vibe I'm going for, plus, Ms. Stoklosa said to go with what we know, and what other place than is better than Weston for that? However, I had to do some location sighting in order to found the perfect place to film peaceful but overwhelming scenes. 

After my research I found this neighborhood in front of the Country Isles school, it had this long street where the trees seemed to close in, it is also near a park in which I could shot a couple of creepy shots of lonely swings swinging in the wind.

At the end of the street there is also a cross walk where I plan to make my brother walk with his back pack inferring he is on his way to school. As he walks by, the title should show under the cross walk. I'm taking inspiration from the Beatles here.

The point of this scene is to show the main characters daily routine, which usually says a lot about a character. The boy is supposed to dress in neutral colors because he doesn't like to stand out, he walks to school alone because he doesn't have friends nor someone who really cares about him, and he is completely silent during the whole opening, lost on quietly observing his surroundings. 

I was doing research on the genre and I was mostly inspired by the film openings of "Scream (1996)" and "it (2017)" where the main character is going on with their day until the antagonist interrupts them by introducing theirselves, but we never really get to fully see them.

Scream (1996)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3lSvJ5RXKA 

It, (2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJWJ6RP55nU 

Draw what you see 🎭

 Im doing a 2 min film opening! I'm so exited for this new project.For the genre, I decided to go for a mysterious drama. My film is about a boy that can apparently see peculiar things... 

My protagonist, a young boy that never really knew the love of his parents since he found them "suspiciously" murdered in their bedroom one night when he was around 5, the kid is 9 now, and he is currently under a medication because of the traumatic event he witnessed. The medication that he is given is to prevent any major trauma, however, this medication makes him see things. The kid's new obsession is drawing what he can now clearly see due to the medication. Black monsters that ramble around waiting for him to notice them. The kid has attended many doctors over those 4 years, and not a single one has been able to explain what he could've seen that night 4 years ago that traumatized him.

I've also done some research and the word "mystery" fits really well this story, "something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain." 

I hope to do good!