Editing is No Fun

Warning: this post includes teenage whining. 

The title says it all. I began editing earlier this week, shortly after I had finished filming, but I wish I could just go back to filming. After such a fun week of filming, locking myself in my room to edit during spring break is the last thing I want to be doing.

My editing process goes something like this:

1. Review footage and cry because I forgot that one thing.

2. Bang head against a wall.

3. Stare blankly at a wall, any wall works (a fish is also acceptable).

4. Put the clips in order.

5. Make a mess on Final Cut Pro that somehow hides your mistakes.

6. Ask Zoe how to do that one thing you've never done before.

7. Repeat steps 2 and 3.

8. Realize you're not done editing so you can't really finish your quirky step by step list.

Okay all jokes and whining aside, I knew this wasn't going to be easy. I've never used Final Cut Pro, though I'm pretty competent as of right now, and to my surprise my film is actually really reliant on editing. Animating the fish's mouth- which I knew was possible but Zoe taught me how to do- takes a considerable amount of time and patience, and graphic matches are hard to pull off right. Overall, I'm trying my best, and as long as I try my best  I'm sure it'll come to fruition.

See ya next time!

IT'S A WRAP

I am writing this very late at night after quite a long week so it's hard to articulate how relieved I am to be done filming, but trust me, I'M VERY EXCITED!

I'll spare you the details because I know you're probably tired of reading about how much I love filming, but here's how it went down:

All I had left to shoot was the underwater scenes and the shots of the fish creeping up on the protagonist. So once again we met up at Dakota's house in the afternoon and began filming what I didn't know was gonna be one of the most challenging scenes I've had to film.

The toughest by far was the shots in which Leandro fell into the pool with clothes on. I'm so thankful he even agreed to do that, because I was struggling without any extra layers on me. We had to do about ten different takes of Leandro falling into the water, and then I had to get close ups of his face, feet and hands. It's probably worth noting the water was freezing despite it being a beautiful warm day, so that didn't make it any easier. Oh also, DID I MENTION THE CAMERA WE USED HAD NO VIEWFINDER? It was already hard enough as it was, but now I had to forget all I knew about framing and go blind and hope for the best. I had set up the GoPro so that it sent the clips directly to my phone, but even then I had to go back and check at the edge of the pool after every take. Needless to say, it was not easy.

Still from pool scene, color corrected.
We shot in Dakota's pool which, although it's not as deep as I had envisioned, worked pretty well.

The rest of the underwater shots were easier in comparison, but I still have a lot of unusable footage I have to work around.

Leandro, being unbelievably patient.

All I had to do was shoot the remaining shots of the fish creeping up on the protagonist. I shot those the following day at my friend's house because his walls are a muted blue, which was close enough to match the other shots! That was by far the easiest to shoot- which was a nice end to shooting :)

Filming Day 3

After a successful second day of filming, I was feeling pretty confident (maybe a little too much so). So I scheduled to film the remaining scenes with Leandro at my friend Dakota's house. I was planning to film all of the underwater scenes, a montage of the son as a "little kid," and a scene in the protagonist's bedroom.

We began filming at around two. I decided to film the montage first because it was the most time sensitive- I needed high key lighting, so shooting as close to midday as possible was ideal. This scene was pretty easy to execute- if you ignore the fact that I got soaked carrying a fishbowl full of water from the community pool bathroom to the field. We drove to an open field near Dakota's house, set up a nice picnic blanket, and it didn't take too long to film :)

Still from film, color corrected. 

Then we headed back to her house to film the scene's in the bedroom. I wasn't originally planning to shoot those that same day but I figured I might as well since Leandro was there. Because Dakota's hot pink walls were impossible to tone down even with color correction, we filmed in her sister's baby blue room. I couldn't really shoot the other parts of the room because the furniture was a bit too distracting, but despite being a little set back I was glad to have those scenes done!

Still from film, color corrected. 

After about two and a half hours of filming (it really didn't feel like that long), we started shooting the  pool scenes. It wasn't looking too good for me given that there was already a shadow casted across half of the pool. Regardless, we started shooting. Except we had to stop not long after because Leandro was supposed to be home. Still, we got a lot done, which is what really matters!!

Until next time!

Filming Day 2

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO EMPHASIZE HOW WELL IT WENT :))

I had such a fun time the second day of filming! That day the plan was to film all of the scenes that took place in the white room with the fish. I was feeling skeptical at first, but I'm actually pleasantly surprised with the outcome! 

That day I had "senior privilege," meaning I got to leave school early, so I had plenty of time to get home and completely demolish the Feng Shui of my living room before Leandro got out. You see, I have white walls in my living room and like most people I also have furniture, so you know when deciding where to film I was like "perfect! I'll just rearrange my entire living room and breakdown a three piece sectional couch by myself!!" Yeah it wasn't easy.

Once the couches were all out of the way, I had a pretty decent set to work with. I covered the carpet with white tablecloths I had bought at the dollar store , and I grabbed every single semi-portable light in my house for lighting- remember that tank I mentioned in my second post? let's just say Nemo didn't see the light of day for a while (he's okay I promise). I was honestly feeling pretty defeated as I was setting up. I didn't think it looked bad, but it wasn't amazing.

There was literally no way to make it look whiter....or so I thought. The camera's lovely ISO settings came to save me from peril last minute as I set it to the highest possible setting, and I actually screamed from joy- there's video proof of it but it is profane and as funny as it is, this is not the right platform but feel free to email me if you wanna see it ;)

I also had my wonderful best friend Andrea helping me set up, and later hyping me up while shooting- I'm serious if you can invest in a hype man whenever you shoot it is such a good boost for morale.

Not pictured: me screaming behind camera in pure joy.

Once that was done nothing could possibly bring me down. Leandro fell asleep and was like an hour late to the shoot but I was so happy I got the lights right I didn't care at all, plus he's such a joy to work with I don't even care as long as he makes it there- because shooting goes by so fast anyway. It's really cool working with an actor who actually wants to study performing arts, and it makes my job as director so much easier! He even asks to do retakes when he doesn't like how he did something, which is so great!

Leandro, winning his Oscar (not color corrected yet).

Because of that, shooting only took like two hours. All I had to do after they left was shoot the shots that were of only the fish. I don't think I've mentioned it, but I'm planning to animate the fish digitally. It'll work something like stop motion, but what I'm doing is I'm taking the same shot of the fish from all possible angles (by spinning it), and I'm creating assets for the individual expressions so that I can do all of the animation in post. 

Fish mom having a grand ol' time. 

I stayed up pretty late shooting the fish, but it was honestly not as painstaking as it sounds. It sounds kinda corny but I enjoy this project so much I don't really care about how time consuming it might be. I almost don't even care about the final product because of how much fun the journey has been, but I feel like saying that would jinx it SO FORGET I SAID ANYTHING!

OH I ALMOST FORGOT! I painted a poster of orchids to add to the set. It was pretty rushed and I know I can do better, but it serves its purpose!

I used photoshop to paint digitally, and then I got it printed. 

I think that's all for that day,

See ya next time!

Filming Day 1

Last Saturday night I set my alarm to get up bright and early (10 am), because I was filming for the first day at David's house. The plan was to film the two scenes Connie had to be in, so I needed to get there at around 1 o' clock and set up for about an hour until Leandro got there at 2. 

I ended up pushing the schedule back an hour when I realized I still needed to cook the fish for the dinner scene. Apart from that, everything went smoothly. After having to run around my house and the nest I call a room last minute to get everything I needed, it went pretty okay!

Because I wanted the light from the kitchen window to come in, we (as in David and I) set up the lights for the "childhood" scenes first. We had to set up five individual lights to light the actors' faces, because the light from the window was too overpowering and was silhouetting the figures.

Oh look its an actual picture of me setting up lights and framing. 

Everything was going smooth, or as smooth as a shoot directed by me can go, until David's family showed up unannounced how dare they interrupt my creative process. Nonetheless, I was on a tight schedule so I worked around the mild inconvenience, and confused hispanic relatives who now had to try to be quiet, and filmed close up shots of Leandro that didn't need audio syncing. 

Still from film, color corrected. 

For this scene Leandro is wearing an orange oversized shirt, a yellow  cap, small jean shorts, and yellow socks with white shoes. His costume was meant to read as childish, not only because of the color psychology of the playful orange, but the fact that he's wearing clothes a small child would wear. I also color corrected the footage to look vintage, implying this scene takes place in the character's past (or his memories of the past). 

After Connie was done taking care of her guests, we continued filming the remaining childhood scenes, and moved onto the beginning dinner scene. I really wanted to get a symmetrical shot, to highlight the differences between the mother and son, so I ended up having to move furniture around.  Then, we set up the same lights again to illuminate the actors' faces and began rolling. At this point my camera was about to die, so I had to quicken the pace at which I was shooting, which led to problems I now have to work around in post. Some of Connie's lines were a bit too challenging for her grand acting debut, so I had to change my shots a little. For example, in one of the longer lines I had to switch to an over the shoulder shot of her so that I could later put any audio over it with minimal editing. Aside from that it was pretty great! 

Another color corrected still, though I need to crop it.

Part of me wants to start the analysis and spoil everything, but I might as well keep some kind mystery until you see the final product ;)

See ya!

SHE'S ALIVE

I'D LIKE TO FIRST BRIEFLY APOLOGIZE FOR MY INACTIVITY, BUT IN MY DEFENSE THERE IS JUST SO MUCH HAPPENING.

Last Saturday I finally I put an end to the long and painful journey that was completing my fish puppet!

Last time I updated you, I had just sprayed the fish with the enamel clear coating and was worried the acrylic paint wasn't gonna stick. So I got home and I sanded the surface of it carefully so that the paint had a grain to stick to. I may have gone a little mad and I put over 15 different coats of acrylic paint on the fish, just to make sure it wouldn't come off ( I started with thinner coats and slowly built up the ratio of paint to water).

Once I was done painting, I wasn't really satisfied with the color of the fins and eyelids, so I decided to redo them entirely in a shade of orange. This ended up working in making the fish look more friendly because of the more playful feeling the orange gives off- as opposed to the more aggressive red.

Then, because I still feared for my fish child's safety underwater, I went back AGAIN with the clear enamel spray to make the surface even more water resistant (this proved to be necessary while filming). Later that night,  I did a quick little test with the fish bowl to make sure things would go smoothly during the shoot.

And just like that my beautiful stupid fish child learned to swim, well sort of. I had to tweak some things and secure the string, but it's done!!!

See ya!

Revised Schedule

Week One (2/26 - 3/4)

• Discuss inspiration and research
• Explain/develop plot and characters 
• Start outline and script (weekend)
• Start fish prop (weekend)

Week Two (3/12

• Finish Script
• Storyboard
• Casting and schedule filming 
• Finish fish prop(weekend) 

Week Three

• Finalize script and storyboard.
• Set design, costume, and props.
• Casting and Scheduling
• Filming (Sunday)

Week Four

• Filming ( I ended up using my cushion for reshooting)
• begin planning secondary components
• already have postcard sketched. 

Week Five (Spring Break)

• Start editing in the beginning of the week and have friends review it. 
• Work on website and postcard 

Week Six

• Fix any editing mistakes.
• finish website and postcard if needed
• plan/start CCR

Week Seven

• finish CCR
• post film, website and postcard, and CCR

Time is a Construct That I Sadly Have to Account For

So, you may have noticed that I said I was going to start filming this week but never did. That's because who I had previously casted to play my lead, my friend Leandro, is out of town this entire week in a drama competition.

Leandro in Little Shop of Horrors. 

Luckily, I realized that I definitely needed the extra time to figure out planning. I hadn't finalized my script, the fish wasn't done, I had no props, and I hadn't decided on locations- I didn't even have an actress to play the mom yet!

So I took care of all those things this week:

- The script and storyboards are done!

- After blood, sweat, and tears, the fish is almost done. I will test whether it's waterproof or not this weekend- there'll be more on that in a later post.

- I have casted a mom. David, a great best friend and wonderful human being (who is also voice acting the fish), asked his mom if she could do it. When David asked her, she sent this really sweet voice message :)



- I coordinated the first day of filming. This Sunday I will be filming all of the dinner scenes
in the afternoon, at David's house.

Kitchen table, photo courtesy of David. 

I'm thinking of using this table for the shots of him as a kid. There's also a bunch of cute "carvings" ( I don't know what else to call them) of cathedrals in Colombia hung up on the walls, which makes sense thematically- implying this took place back when they lived in Venezuela (Colombian cathedrals are similar to those found in Venezuela).

"Dining room" table (another picture by David)

I think I want to use this table for the beginning dinner scene. This table feels much more modern, which would help establish the fact that this takes place later in the protagonist's life.








-  I revised my set design! When I met with my instructor, we talked about how the set design of my white room might be too bleak. She said it could read as a mental hospital, which is definitely not what I'm going for. The bottom line is that if I'm trying to convey my character's psyche, my set design should reflect their personality. I haven't fully decided how I'm going to convey that, but the plan is to build the set and work out the framing to see what works best.

Concept art: I'm considering having a painting  of orchids in the background and blue vines scattered around . 

- I bought props! Last Thursday I went to the dollar store and Michael's (a crafts store), where I bought little pebbles for the fishbowl, white tablecloth, glass milk bottles, and fake blue orchids. Hopefully this will be enough for all of my sets. 

And that's about all I've done so far! I apologize for the simplicity of this post, I'm trying to keep my blog up to date before I get sucked in into filming and editing. I KNOW YOU CANT TELL BUT I'M REALLY EXCITED :D

Until next post, 

See ya!

SO CLOSE

I've been so busy fighting with a fish that I forgot to update, but last weekend I finalized my storyboards and script!

You already know what my film is about, so I'm not gonna make you read another synopsis of my plot, but if you want a better sense for the mood of my piece here is a "final" script  (I'll probably review it with my actors and make adjustments).

I'm pretty proud of myself for successfully writing a script. It is by no means professional or formatted correctly, but it's enough to be able to successfully direct my actors. I should mention I had the help of my two good friends Alexa and Zoe. They revised my last draft and let me now if things were unclear or if they didn't make much sense, I'm really glad I had their help :)

Here are my storyboards to go along with my script! (the dotted lines mark the end of a scene and the start of the next).

finalized storyboards

See ya in my next post!

EDIT: the storyboards are missing one shot where the fish is looking the other way and turns around to face the camera. 

PUPPET CHAOS- PART 2

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT A LITTLE FISH. WHERE DO I BEGIN?

When I decided I was making a fish puppet for my film,  it all seemed lovely. I had made a puppet last year using a similar method, and I was pretty well-versed in using the clay,  life was beautiful. You know, I had my struggles last year, it being the first time I made something like it, but I learned from them. Still, nothing could prepare me for the emotional rollercoaster that was making this stupid disgrace of a fish. 

You see, at a glance, a quirky and cute fish seems like a grand idea. Cute bug eyes, small little fins, and a pouty mouth, what could go wrong?

Well let me save you the trouble of figuring that out: fish live underwater. This simple realization marked the beginning of a nauseating, stressful downward spiral into a violent  storm of clay, toxic fixative sprays, and a stupid fish. 

Me, stressed.

Making the fish was relatively easy, I used a styrofoam ball as the base, and I sculpted with air dry clay around it. It was perfect, I tested last years puppet to make sure it would float. The plan was for the fish to float while being held down by a clear string to the bottom of the tank.

Started from styrofoam and built around
it. 

I tested whether the head would float
 with clay on it
 (she survived don't worry)

Three interchangeable mouths
that will allow me to animate.

The fins are made with aluminum wire,
foam, and plasticine.

The fish was done, and if I do say so myself it's pretty cute. BUT  LITTLE DID I KNOw,  AIR DRY CLAY DISSOLVES IN WATER. The challenge was now to waterproof a material that was essentially made to be dissolved in water. So I did some research, and apparently I could spray it with either acrylic sealant or enamel clear coat to "waterproof" it (though some people warned against it). 

So I went to my local arts and crafts store and upon seeing the health warnings on the cans my mom was immediately against the acrylic sealant.  Enamel spray was something more familiar so we just went with that instead... except we didn't, we picked out the can one spot to the right of the one we needed. This spray turned out to be lacquer, which was the cherry on top of a messy Sunday evening. You see, according to my dad, lacquer would eventually decompose the air dry clay- destroying my newborn fish child. 

So I did what any panicking mother would and after an hour of sitting on my living room floor, stress eating, I was reminded by my friend Zoe that I could just sand the coating off. 

All good, right? NOPE

I still had to find a way to seal it. So I went to the store and got myself a good ol' can of enamel clear coat. When I tell you I sprayed that fish, I mean I sprayed that fish, and after about ten coats of the thing I decided that was enough. My puppet child was covered, shiny and protected from the evils of H20 ready to be painted with beautiful...water-based...acrylic paint- shit. 

So I did what any rational human being would do, and I ate an entire 12 oz bag of plantain chips as I paced around my house, whining, trying to figure this mess out. After whining for an appropriate amount of time,  Zoe came to the rescue again and suggested  that I sand it and paint over it. A quick online search confirmed this will help the acrylic paint stick, but I really don't know what to trust anymore...

ANYWAY HAVE A NICE DAY!

Me again, still stressed but hopeful.

When Words Fail

So as I mentioned in my schedule post, this week has been all about the writing process. I decided I would challenge myself in writing a short film heavy on dialogue, and it has definitely been a challenge. Writing is such a crucial part of any production, yet when done right it often goes unnoticed. This is something I was aware of but never really had the "pleasure" of dealing with myself.

But because I said I would do it, I sat down in front of my desk, played some nice background music and got comfy- ready to write myself an Oscar-worthy screenplay. This was the magnificent result:

Okay not really, but I got nothing done. 

Inevitably, I sat at my desk for what seemed like hours, but was really 20 minutes, and immediately gave up. I have never written a proper script in my life, and I had not even the slightest clue of how to start. So like any regular Ogre in a Broadway Musical would, I found alternative means to convey my ideas when words failed. 

Writing a script just didn't feel right, so I went with what I knew and I created a storyboard for myself following a basic outline of my film. I had an odd little moment of revelation as I was working because words just made so much more sense when paired with images. Before I knew it I had the first draft of my film done, with dialogue!

This was my first draft in case you wanted to try to make sense of my angsty scribbles. 

Once I had the basic flow of my film figured out, it was time to look back at what I had created in the wee hours of the night and make adjustments. I immediately laughed at myself because of how melodramatic my tone was. My intention was to make something stupid funny, but I ended up with a melodramatic mid-2000s MTV teen drama. I had two problems:

1) My characters all had the same voice (that of a whiny teenage boy).

2) I didn't know what kind of funny I wanted to be. 

My friend Zoe pointed the first problem out to me (not that it was whiny, she didn't see the script). When I mentioned I was having trouble, she reminded me that a really important thing with writing is to make sure the characters each have an individual voice. So I remembered a project our wonderful teacher had assigned us in AS Level. It was a movie pitch, and one of the components involved extensive research on characters. I basically copied the format and made myself a guide for each character. I was already feeling better about it. 

To solve the second problem, I decided to study one of my favorite directors: Edgar Wright.

I'm surprised I hadn't mentioned him before. I really admire him as a director, and all his films are my kind of funny. That said, I wasn't going to rewatch all of his movies (though I would) because I frankly didn't have the time to. Luckily, I found a video essay all about how he approaches comedy to summarize major characteristics of his style.

With those two major issues solved I had a solid plan to revisit my boards and dialogue, and take on the task of presenting a pretty serious and personal topic in a lighthearted way :)

 Shrek struggling to confess his feelings for Fiona.

Wright, Edgar, director. Shaun of the Dead. StudioCanal, 2017.

Wright, Edgar, director. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Universal Pictures, 2010.
Wright, Edgar, director. Baby Driver. TriStar Pictures, 2017.
Steig, William, writer. Abaire, David, writer. Warren, Michael, director. (2013). Shrek the Musical. 

Build-A-Film Workshop

LETS TALK ABOUT STRUCTURE!

JOIN ME AS I CHANNEL MY INNER BOB AND TRY TO PIECE TOGETHER A SHORT FILM FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY ENTIRE GAY LIFE. 

King of Building

Like I said before, this is essentially a film about how a son copes with the increasingly more tense relationship with his mother. It's also about how we perceive those closest to us, how we reflect on memories and their inherent subjectivity, as well as the idea of compromise. I always struggle with telling stories without giving away the ending so consider yourself warned.

The story will be split into three acts, each act consisting of about three scenes. The structure of these three scenes will be repeated in each act to emphasize the differences in each act and tell story visually rather than through dialogue.

Lunch Scene 

This scene is between the mother and the son as they have lunch; it is the most straight forward component illustrating their relationship in each of the acts. I plan to rely heavily subtext and symbolic props. 

My Dinner With André (1981) directed by Louis Malle

I thought about exploring this idea when I stumbled upon the 1981 film My Dinner With André. Now I'm not necessarily going for what Louis Malle was going for in his emulation of conversational speech; instead, I was interested in the idea of an entire film revolving around a dinner scene, using the subtext to convey the story. The beginning sequence of Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds(2009) exemplifies this style of writing. Dialogue full of metaphors and subtext that hints at what the villain already knows but hasn't explicitly stated. This isn't only foreshadowing, but it also amplifies the tension of the conversation- something that is incredibly hard to do.

Inglorious Basterds (2009) directed by Quentin Tarantino

Fish Scene

Henri Matisse, Goldfish (1982)

In this scene the protagonist is in a fully white room talking to an artificial goldfish in a round fishbowl. The white room being symbolic of his state of mind, a projection of his inner monologue. I remember learning about the symbolism of goldfish in my AP Art History class as it relates to Henri Matisse's work; its meaning being that of a contemplative and mindful state.

I really didn't want to spoil the end but essentially the fish is a representation of his mom as seen through the protagonist's eyes. The fish being this foreign entity (given that is not human), whom the protagonist doesn't fully understand or relate to, but has to have this constant conversation with. Not only that, but given that the fish doesn't really speak English*, it further reinforces this linguistic disconnect between the mother and the son as it relates to the experiences of immigrants and the children of immigrants. It is also artificial; a constructed representation of his mom. The fish isn't really meant to reveal anything about the mom, but instead this hyper-stylization reveals how the protagonist/narrator feels about her. This is a concept I see myself borrowing from the 2017 FX show Legion created by Noah Hawley, but that show deserves its own blog post. 

Also, a fish making distorted bubble sounds with subtitles underneath is just the right kind of stupid  funny. Especially since I can get away with making this adorable bug-eyed fish curse without having to censor it. I'm excited for how dumb it's gonna look, and I really hope I succeed in at least making my classmates giggle or cringe- honestly I can't tell which one would be more satisfying.

Pool Scene 

The underwater scenes are all about the son trying to understand his mom and cope with the stress. This serves as a bridge between the more physical/real lunch scene and the hyper-stylized fish scene. It is essentially a scene in which the protagonist struggles to put himself in his mothers shoes. Considering that, according to him, his mother is a fish (I love As I lay Dying), it's no coincidence that when he tries to understand her he put himself in her environment. Water is also a symbol for change. I was inspired by Guillermo del Toro's Shape of Water in which he describes water as an ever-changing and malleable thing. Similarly, water is a symbol for change in my film as the protagonist undergoes a shift in attitude in order to coexist peacefully with his mother.

The Shape of Water (2017) directed by Guillermo del Toro

LET'S GET BUILDING ( I'm really trying to make this entertaining)

I'm gonna keep it short and sweet (I'll discuss techniques on my storyboard post). My film opens with a lunch scene between the mother and the son. The son is struggling to cut a a whole fried fish while the mom asks questions. The scene's purpose is to establish tension and illustrate their dysfunctional dynamic. As the son tries to drown her out with the sound of pouring water we are transported to an underwater scene in which the protagonist is drowning and struggling to keep his head above water. As he gasps for air and closes his eyes, a graphic match transitions to the next scene. He exhales, opens his eyes and finds himself sitting in a white room in front of fishbowl. Annoyed, he complains about the fish being back, a comment the snarky fish takes great offense to and curses him out for (the dialect codes the fish as Venezuelan). There is manipulative undertones in the fish's dialogue, as the protagonist tries to speak up the fish belittles him and interrupts him. 

This belittling transports the narrator/protagonist to Act 2, which opens with another dinner scene. This is essentially a flashback, but the actor is the same, with the only difference being his costume. He wears primary colors and kid's clothes he's now outgrown. This startles the narrator at first, but when his youthful mom talks to him in a nurturing and calm manner, he ignores it and continues to talk to her. He's eating chicken nuggets (or some sort of "kid food"), and drinking milk from a carton. His mother wears the same color as the orchids on the table. The purpose of this scene is to convey his longing for simpler times. It is  constructed representation of his past which starts to disintegrate as the inaccuracy in his mother's speech takes him back to reality. A graphic match edit from his mother to the fish transitions into the next scene. The fish is nicer to the protagonist, somewhat patronizing, the scene ends with "you can't hold on to the past forever" the last few words sound more human. The protagonist is startled, gets up, falls backwards and an action match cuts to him at his bed. Staring directly at the camera/ceiling, he is interrupted by a call from his friend.

This scene might change later but as of now it is a scene where the friend over the phone invites the protagonist to hang out. He's hesitant, expressing how he has things to do, "ah, sorry I can't... there's this fish I have to take care of now, and it's dumb but I-" she interrupts and proceeds to talk to him about how much she dislikes the fish, her description of the fish personifies it. The words "why do you even care, it's gonna die anyway" strike a cord with the protagonist, he drops the phone, the camera lingers for a bit.

Now in Act 3 the protagonist is swimming, essentially trying to figure out his place, and how to coexist with his mom- in a state of rapid change. The scene is punctuated by inserts of a third fish scene. In the inserts the fish is being funny, but mean comments take the protagonist out of it and we cut back to the swimming. The pacing of the edits slowly crescendos. The camera cuts to a scene of the protagonist looking overtly ominous as he stares at the fish. He's meant to look as if he was about to kill the fish, but the camera angle shifts so that we go from a low angle to a higher angle. He asks, in a charming and calm voice "how are you?" The fish is taken aback, initially combative, but then continues to give a genuine response. The camera cuts to along shot of the two talking, with the protagonist now laying down on the floor( level with the fish). There is a push out and the camera tilts 180 degrees. Then a graphic match to the dinner scene starts a montage of flashbacks and graphic matches that establish the mother and the fish as the same. Simultaneously, the fish and the mother's dialogue blends into one voice. The final shot is of the protagonist peacefully floating in the water, the camera shooting from a high angle tilting 360 degrees.

ROLL THE CREDITS.

He's done, sorta. 

And that's it, thats my basic outline! Hopefully now you understand what my idea is. Now I can begging blogging about how I'm actually going to be conveying that idea. Expect storyboards and script later this week :)










The fish is going to "speak" in a distorted high pitched voice that sounds kind of like bubbles, but the rhythm and intonation will code it as hispanic.  

Del Toro, Guillermo, director. The Shape of Water . Fox Searchlight Pictures , 2017. 

Malle, Louis, director. My Dinner With André. New Yorker Films, 1981. 

Tarantino, Quentin, director. Inglourious Basterds. Universal, 2009. 

Wilkins, Charlotte. “Matisse, Goldfish.” Khan Academy, 2013, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/a/matisse-goldfish.

Story Time!

It's week two, and this gargantuan monster of a project is starting to feel like a real thing. Since I already had my plot and rough ideas worked out before last week, I spent the majority of the week working to refine that. As of this post, I've been working on the script and storyboard simultaneously, as well as a prop similar to last year's (thats right, I DID THIS TO MYSELF, AGAIN).

But let's backtrack a little. 

On an earlier post (From Lady Birds to Moody Boys), I discussed how I wanted to convey similar themes to movies like Boyhood and Lady Bird, and how I wanted the same kind of heartfelt, genuine feel. Needless to say, this was gonna be hard to achieve in under five minutes, so I decided to use a nonlinear narrative structure to convey this type of story. Before I get into the structure, I think it's important I talk about my actual story and what it is I'm struggling to cram into five minutes.

My story is about the constant push and pull in the relationship between a mother and a son; it is a kind of super zoom into how the son copes with this tension. The mother's character is very traditional and stoic, and she finds herself struggling to cope with how her son is coming of age in a different country- given that he's inevitably influenced by the culture he's surrounded by (this is a first generation immigrant family). As a result, we see widening gap between these two characters which manifests itself in a lot of awkward moments and conflicting opinions.

The story follows the protagonist (who as of now is male, but nothing about his character is gender-specific, so it could change) in his last year of High School as he's eager to leave the nest. Like many teenagers, he seeks to be free from the constraint of his parents' expectations.

Now because I'm not one to scandalize deeply personal narratives like these, or to present a problem without any semblance of a solution, I'm making my short comedic and lighthearted. I simply don't want to create something that makes people sad, especially those people who are going through or have gone through similar experiences. If I'm going to bring these issues to light, then you bet I'm gonna do it in a way that provides relief or a happy ending. The bottom line is that if I'm gonna make a short about this very personal topic, I'm gonna do it in a way that I would like to see it represented- I  also just wanna have fun!

I was initially going to talk about narrative structure in this post, but seeing as though I've rambled on for a bit I'm gonna spare you the unnecessarily long post.

Schedule!!

Week One (2/26 - 3/4)

• Discuss inspiration and research
• Explain/develop plot and characters 
• Start outline and script (weekend)
• Start fish prop (weekend)

Week Two (3/12

• Finish Script
• Storyboard
• Casting and schedule filming 
• Finish fish prop(weekend) 

Week Three

• Filming (figure out schedule in week 2)

Week Four

• Edit film 
• Cushion for reshooting 
• begin planning secondary components? 

Week Five (Spring Break)

• Finish rough edit (have friends review it)
• work on website and postcard 

Week Six

• Fix any editing mistakes (get feedback) 
• finish website and postcard if needed
• plan/start CCR

Week Seven

• finish CCR
• post film, website and postcard, and CCR

From Lady Birds to Moody Boys

Over the past year I've become really interested in what I don't know what else to call but "biographical" films. These films are not really biopics, or documentaries, but they're the kind of films that give a super zoom of a character's life in a way that feels authentic. These are coming of age films like Lady Bird and Boyhood.

Lady Bird (2017) directed by Greta Gerwig

Lady Bird is a coming of age story that follows the rebellious Ladybird, played by Saoirse Ronan, in her last year of High School and early college. The film is notable for its seemingly unfiltered exploration of a character and their development, with its strengths in the dialogue and acting. 

Boyhood (2014) directed by Richard Linklater

Boyhood is another coming of age film. This one follows a boy from the age of six to eighteen, and it does not shy away from conveying the hardships, uncertainty, and confusion of growing up. Yet, it also includes the mundane parts of the protagonists life. In boyhood, it is the little moments that make the difference and convey an incredibly sincere story.

That said, though I admire both films for their artistry, I found myself feeling removed from the narrative simply because I couldn’t relate to a lot of their experiences. The films made me feel like I understood the characters well, but I was never really invested in the film.

After watching Ladybird, I talked to my friend Alexa, who had a totally different experience from mine. 

I went to her because I knew she loved the film, and I wanted to get a better sense as to why she had such a connection with the film. Mind you this was over text so I don't know the best way to convey this. 

I told her that I liked the film for what it successfully aimed to be: a sincere and genuine coming of age story; However, when I said I didn't connect with the film, she immediately said that "part of the reason I loved it so much was bc I saw a LOT of myself in Ladybird, and her relationship w her mom."

I immediately realized that the reason I didn't fall in love with the film was that "it just wasn't written for me," I said, " it was a lovely little 'biopic' it just wasn't my story  so I didn't relate to it."
That doesn't mean it wasn't a lovely piece, I mean, when Alexa talked about how much she loved this film's representation of a girl's coming of age story in particular, it all clicked (this is also why we need more women writers and directors in Hollywood, men are dumb).

This is a snippet from our conversation, so it is informal, but I REFUSE TO EDIT ITS CONTENT FOR THE SAKE OF JOURNALISM:

Alexa: Well what I liked most actually, was how it is indeed a coming of age story, and it is presented in many ways coming of age stories have been before, but a problem w a lot of coming of age films w a female protagonist is that they are always pretty unsure of themselves and have no confidence. 

They find themselves through a romantic relationship and they're like "oh this is it he changed me" or whatever. And in some ways lady bird does this, however, throughout the film lady bird is SO CONFIDENT.

She knows who she is (for the most part) and what she wants. she literally initiated all her relationships and she ends up SINGLE! and what's the romance that needs to be rekindled? it's her friendship and her relationship with her mom! not some [greasy*] boy.

Me, hyping Alexa up: YES

Alexa: She finds herself by herself, and that made me so happy bc I grew up for so many years thinking I had to be moody and not confident to attract boys, but that's not true!! u can be a lady bird. 

This was another moment that solidified what I really wanted to do with my short film. Which was to create a sincere and genuine film that, like the directors mentioned above, used personal experiences as source material in hopes to give the viewer the feeling that they understand the protagonist. Ideally, this would aim to give insight into what it means to be a first generation immigrant, gay* latino in the US (casting might complicate this). I'll discuss which tropes I'm going to be challenging- because I refuse to embrace any- in terms of representation in a different post, for now this is a happy post : )

Now, I'm sure you think I'm crazy thinking I can do what the films above did in 2 hours given that I only have 5 minutes, but perhaps I need to find a nonlinear way to solve this issue ;)

I'll be discussing my plot, scenes, and narrative structure in a later post.

Until then,
See ya :)

*Greasy: refers to a boy who looks like he hasn't showered and/or slept in weeks; see Timothee Chalamet's character in Ladybird. 
*Gay here is used as an umbrella term for all that is LGBT+

Linklater, Richard, et al. Boyhood. IFC Films, 2014.
Gerwig, Greta, director. Ladybird. A24, 2017.

I Have to Come Clean...

I may have been secretly working on my short since the beginning of the year...

OKAY ITS NOT AS BAD AS IT SOUNDS I JUST GOT EXCITED.

I can't really pinpoint when my idea began to solidify, but I can think of a moment where bells rang:

Last year while on lockdown because of Hurricane Irma  I spent quite a bit of time staring at my living room aquarium. My dad had recently gone on what I assume is one of the many manifestations of middle age, and bought a 75 gallon saltwater tank. A monstrous tank for a fairly small living room,  which a single tiny clownfish had now conquered. I don't know how else to put this, but in short I ended up talking to this fish a lot. Now I'm not proud of myself for doing that but I have to admit it's surprisingly therapeutic. At this point I also realized that:

1) Fish are actually really interesting to watch
2) it would be really fun to have a Fish as a talking character in my short film.

This reminded me of last year's film intro,  in which I had my main characters speak directly to  an inanimate puppet and I couldn't help but see the parallels as an opportunity for storytelling. Now I wasn't really clear on what to do at this point in time, but I was pretty sure I wanted to put a talking fish in some part of my short film; hence the fish theme throughout my blog.

Here's a current sketch of the fish

This started a kind of subconscious process in which I found myself pulling together random scenes I thought of and trying to form a narrative- which I will discuss on a later blog post...

See ya then : )

BACK AT IT AGAIN

If you didn't get enough of this mess last year, HERE I AM. If you got enough, well then I guess you don't have much of a choice- ANYWAY I'M BACK.

This year I've decided to tackle creating a five minute short film because I want to challenge myself in taking control of all aspects of production. I'm also interested in what I'll end up producing without having to explain to a partner what questionable "epiphany" I had in my shower at 2 am the night before. That said, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't even a little nervous to be doing this all on my own. 

I've never really tackled a full short film with a beginning, middle, and end before. I also haven't really created any productions which were dialogue heavy; hOwEVer, I'm taking these challenges as inspiration and goals I hope to accomplish by the end. I haven't done anything of this scale before, so if I'm gonna go out of my comfort zone I might as well go all out :) lets hope I don't end 

up regretting it.

Oh this is me! I'm gonna try to do this kinda thing throughout  my blog. 

If you're curious as to what I was doing with my life about a year ago from this blog post, here's a link to my AS level blog.