Some Shots We Filmed!

    This week we started the filming production for our project. I will say, at first we all thought that this was going to be fairly easy, however as we approach the date and as we started to shoot, things became very technical in a matter of seconds. We shot multiple scenes many times in order to get the best angles and the best results. We are still yet deciding which shots to use for the final product but here are a few of them. 

In this clip, we used a close-up with some pan movements to create a sense of tiredness. One is able to appreciate the chaos in her room, which is why we focused more on her legs when doing its scene as well as to show how tire she is of life by the way she's walking. 

In this shot, we wanted the prescription pills to be the center of the shot, which is why we placed them in the center third. Maya is prescribed Amitriptyline by her doctor, which is an anti depressant pill. These pills are the ones that help her cope with all the traumatizing events that she has gone through that have made her the way she is. However, in a sense or another, these pills are not working on her because she has a bigger problem which is a mental illness. By using a tilt motion, we were able to move the camera in a way that we would show the audience her intaking the pills. 

Our film opening consists of many close-up shots, but the last shot I will be sharing with you is an over-the-shoulder one. This shot is the last in our opening where we reveal that an accident has happened. It is left in a cliffhanger where the audience wonders what will happen next. We specifically used this type of shot to show a more clear view on Maya, her actions and her expression when she sees the unexpected. 

Lights, Camera, and PROPS!

 Props are a very essential thing in films. The way items are displayed and used throughout a movie can say a lot about a character or the setting they live in. As a group, we have gathered and decided to use certain objects that overall will tell more about our characters. 

    To start off, the first place where we will be shooting and the place where the opening will begin is Maya's bedroom. A person's bedroom says a lot about the person. It's the only place in the world where one feels safe and at home. In this case, it is the only place that Maya feels at ease. We will be using books such as:

                                  Some of her favorite reads                      Education books: SAT 

    As shown in the dialogue we made, Maya is a very good student at school. Months in advance, Maya prepares herself for projects, tests, and even does her homework days before it due. She is always on top of everyone and due to her hard work, it shows. Also, school is a way that she can escape from her personal problems, and stress about other ones. Also, if you look closer to the books that interest her the most, her favorite once, we see that two of them correlate with subjects of the brain and how it works. This is ironic since she might believe that hers is working completely fine when in reality her brain is working to help her not suffer from her past. 

Another important aspect of these books is that there are some that are in Spanish, portraying Maya's culture. Maya comes from a Hispanic father, and including objects that represent that, makes the character developing of Maya way more successful. 

Along with the books, we will make her workplace a messy one. Her whole room will be displayed as very clean and organized, but once we get to the workplace, one will be able to see how disorganize it is, showcasing her problems in life and how her work, or school, is her way of escaping from them; however, no matter how hard she tries, she will never be able to do so without help. 

Costume time!!

     Going back to an older blog post I wrote about our characters and the colors that most define them in our film, today I will be showing you the costumes we have made for both of them and explain them furthermore. 

Maya:

For starters, we have Maya's costume.  From last time I've talked about our characters and the colors that we will be using to define them, there are some things that we changed. It is true that we will be using a light pink in some accents of her bedroom and accessories to showcase her innocence, but also we want to use both green and blue in her costumes as well. As seen in the image, her outfit consists of athleisure since that is the activity being shown in the opening. She will be wearing both green leggings and a sweatshirt which she will be taking off in the car before running, and a blue shirt along with her running shoes. 

The use of green in both her leggings and sweatshirt is used to portray the life in her. As we know, Lucy is the imaginary friend that Maya has created in her head, which means she is not real. On the other hand, green is usually associated with nature nowadays, which is also associated with life. Outside of her close people, everyone views Maya as someone free and filled with life, but once she takes off her sweatshirt and reveals the blue shirt, we discover that Maya also has personal problems. These problems have affected her in a negative way, hints at the cooler, more toned-down blue. 

Moreover, it is evident to discuss that, unlike Lucy, Maya is more conservative with her choice of wear. As we will be seeing shortly, Lucy is more 'out there' and is not afraid of showing herself

Lucy:

As we see in the picture displayed on the left, Lucy's costume is much different from the one of Maya. She not only is showing way more skin, but the style is very different. As talked about in the posts where I illustrate their personalities, Lucy is the cause of why Maya runs and is athletic today. Maya used to be a very shy girl and still is, but now since her friendship with Lucy has flourished, she is more attracted to doing sports like Lucy does. 

Lucy uses more athletic shoes, specifically for running, which hint at that aspect of their friendship. Also considering the fact that Lucy is wearing the 'correct' form of clothes for the activity, shows her experience in sports.

When talking about the color, there's only one that prevails: purple. We purposely did not want to include more than one strong color in her outfit, to not drift the viewer from the desired theme. Like I've mentioned before, purple in media most often symbolizes fantasy. Now, since Lucy is a product of Maya's fantasy, it seemed correct to make this decision. 

Even though we will be including other accessories in these outfits, the main aspects of them are what is being showcased in the pictures. 

The Script

 This week we have been working on our finishing touches for the opening. Some of which are the props, costumes, and one of the most important aspects of it, the script. A script is the written text that describes every motion and dialogue or a play, broadcaster, or in this case our film opening. 

    Scripts are very important since it guides the director and the actors what to do in each scene. Dialogue is an important aspect of scripts. How a character speaks and communicates says a lot about them. It can either represent their personality or also categorize them in a certain stereotype or even a culture.  Even though we weren't able to physically meet up for this activity, we did a group call and worked together on our script displayed here:

As we have already described our character's personality and physical traits in other posts, we wanted to illustrate and communicate those traits in the way they spoke. As seen in the dialogue, we see how Lucy has a very colloquial and sarcastic way of speaking. She's usually the friend taking the lead in their conversations and that shows. She is not afraid to communicate what she thinks, especially not in front of her best friend. On the other hand, Maya is more conservative. We see her truly speaking up on a matter at the beginning of the dialogue when she speaks about her dad not being home. This is a usual occurrence for her, and the fact that it has always bothered her, she most often shares that with Lucy. 

The Title Pt.2

     In a post I have recently written, I spoke about the science behind the title: its meaning and hidden secrets. Today, I will be showing you the fonts we have decided to use. 

    Our film correlates with the struggle of a person, Maya. She seems very simple and rather normal from the outside, but once you dig deeper, you discover the experiences she has been through. For our title and the fonts used, we wanted to describe that, and describe the movie as well. 

As seen on the left, those are some of the fonts that we have been working with. And yes, they all look very similar, BUT they are all different and they all illustrate a different tone to the viewer. After many discussions deciding which one to use, we narrowed it down to three. The first, second, and sixth. These were our top fonts for many reasons:

1) First of all we focused on the simplicity of it. Like I explained before, our movie might seem very simple at first gland, but once the story starts to unfold itself, the viewer will start to connect the dots and discover hidden meanings and statements that make this movie great. The simplicity of the title is what gives it the tone that we wish to give out.

2) The style of the lettering. There's one thing that all these fonts have in common. That's the length of the letters. This gives it a more modern view of the film. These are classic fonts that no matter the genre, they would never go wrong.

3) And lastly, we knew that we wanted to hide one more meaning in the way the title was written in. As seen in the sixth font, the 'A' is missing the middle line. The font not only gives it a very refined look to the movie, which connects with our main audience, but also since the A is missing that middle line, it shows the hidden secrets that Lucy is not Alive, and rather just a product of Maya's brain to cope with her depression.

 

    Even though we are still not 100% sure that that will be our final font choice, it seems as the best choice for us now. 

Enjoying the sound of...

...Music! As we are approaching our editing period of the filming process, a very essential part of our opening is the sound. We have been discussing the best way to approach this matter for weeks already; we couldn't decide entirely, but I bring you today the answer. As our film is targeted mostly to an older generation, we decided that the smartest decision was to include music in the background and not a narrative from Maya, since that could come up as an informal way to start the film. 

    Narrations are usually seen in shows that are mostly targeted to a younger audience, such as Jane the Virgin. These sometimes come off as informal and could affect the way the viewer rates and enjoys the film. 

    When looking for the best fitting sound to include in our opening, we researchers day and night. Upon the hundreds of exploring pages we came up with, we found that the best thriller openings included sharp noises and dramatic music. When talking about those sharp noises, I mean those sounds that along the movie have a meaning. An example of this is the movie Searching (2018) that the opening includes various noises of computer tiles; this correlates with the whole movie and its theme since the movie is being viewed through a computer screen, and Margot's dad ends up finding the answer through the information displayed in her computer. With that being said, we will be incorporating distinctive noises of Maya and Lucy running and walking. Also at the beginning when she grabs the pills in her cabinet we will make sure it is distinct as well for the viewers to remember that scene along with the movie. 

    When talking about the background music being used, we looked for many realty free music online that would display the right setting for the song. Some of the ones we found are:

1- Sunshine by Danijiel Zambo

2- Heat Up by All Good Folks

3- Fiyah by FE77A

    However, we are still looking for the best suiting song for our film oppening.

And the Title is...

     ... Walker 9:37!!! Yes, Walker 9:37 is the name of our film. To many this title might seem simple and with no meaning behind it, but once I start highlighting the different aspects of this two word title, you will be amazed by the thought process behind it.

    As earlier discussed on my blog post talking about the plot, and describing what our main character, Maya's best friend, Lucy, appearance was and her personality, we talked brefiely on some of the importamt aspects of our opening Today I will be enlightening you with some hidden secrets in our title.

    For starters, the word Walker is a pronoun, and we find out later in the movie that that is Lucy's last name. Having her last name in the title is already showcasing something about the film; the audience could immediatly foreshadow that the movie revolves around something that happened to Lucy, however since we don't display her last name in the oppening, the audience will still be stunned when viewing it without having an initial idea of what the plot looks like. Moreover, the last name Walker could seem standard to many, but the name itself also has some meaning behind it. Walker has a strong correlation to the word 'walk.' This is an important feature since Lucy "dies" while running with Maya. Even though this is not explicitly said in the opening, once the filmn continues, the viewers are able to connect the death of Lucy with the title. But furthermore to just the similarity in words, walking has also a positive connotation. As our research indicates it, walking often is related to the sense and feeling of being free and  seeking a change. It could also be assosiated to breaking a bond with the society that surronds you. In this case, we learn that Maya created Lucy in her mind in order to cope with some of her traumatic past experiences. This has lead her to want to escape from her reality and create a best friedn that will help her get through it. 

    On the other hand, the numbers dispplayed on the title, which read 9:37 am, also have a strong connection with the meaning of the film. Doing some further reaserch, we knew that the time that the death of Lucy happened, had to have some type of connotation with Maya and the film as a whole. We decided to reaserch uppon what each number meant and what it symbolized. Upon investigating, we foumd the answers. When it comes to the number three, it often means harmony. We get this meaning by adding one and two which mean unity and disorder and once united, one gets the meaning of harmony. As stated previosuly, we know that Maya created Lucy as a way to feel that harmony and love that she has lost or lacks due to her past. The next greater number is the number seven. In this case, we choose the number seven cause as our reaserch explains, it is a umber that symbolizes fantasy. It could also symbolize magic, as an Ireland tale says that the seventh son of the seventh son carries magical powers. Going back to what was explained, Lucy is just a product of Maya's immagination, therefore showcasimng a fantasy aspect in the film. Latly, we have the number nine. It is said that the number nine is a lucky number. There are various tales about why it is a lucky number, but in conclustion, it just is. IF one correlated this to the plot, one could certainly see that Lucy is of luck and fortune to Maya. Maya is able to live content because she is lucky to enjoy it next to her best friend. Also, Lucy acts as a 'luck charm' to Maya since we clearly stated in our character mood boards that Maya can act as her true self around Lucy. 

Citations:

Icy Sedgwick, Says, L., Lydia, Says, I., Says, M., Matt, . . . 19, C. (2020, July 17). Numbers in Folklore: Why are 3, 7 and 9 important IN SUPERSTITION? Retrieved March 15, 2021, from https://www.icysedgwick.com/numbers-in-folklore/

Inside Our Shots

     Previosuly, a couple weeks ago, I had began to discuss the thought behind our storyboard. However, today I will be expanding furthermore on why we chose to use certain shots.

    As seen in the post I've done a couple weeks ago, click here to view, presnting the storyboard we have drawn, there we establish a clear view of what our oppening will look like. Through decided the main idea of our film opening, all of the story lines we came up with, had to do with character developing. In order to develop such, we decided to do a list a shopts that will help us achieve that goal. 

    The opening will begin with our main character Maya at her house getting ready to go for a run. During those scenes, the audience will be able to get a few peaks at what not only her house is compoused of, but also what her room looks like (we will be discussing the props being used in later posts.) During those scenes we will be using close ups and extreme close ups, to show all of the different steps in her routine when she wakes up and gets ready, as well as medium shots to show her costumes as well. When using the close ups, we will be focusing ans using a crane and a pan movement to follow her during her routine. Doing this will give a sense of how this routine is daily and abitual, showing one of the traits in her personality which is responsability and showcasing her workl ethic. 

    After she gets ready, she will be picking up her best friend Lucy, which svenes will be shot using long shots and medium shots. The long shots not only will establish the setting and the environment of her home town, but also what she looks like while driving. The medium shots will give teh audience a closer look at what both characters do and emphasisng on their language. While in the car, we will be shooting their conversatuons fromn three types of shots: medium shots, close ups, and over the shoulder. The over the shoulder will be shot when one of the characters in talking and in order to show how the other reacts, we will be incorporing this type of shot. The close up will showcase their personality by focusing on just on character at the time, and the medium shots will give the audience a more clear view of their actions and how they react to certain things. 

    Larter, once they arrive to their destination, the trail park, we will be using close up shots on their feet while running, long shots to establish the place, and medium shots as well to show the character and their actions. This part of the opening is so imporatta as we will be introducing the conflict. 

    Overall, since we want to focus on character developing, we will be using many close up shots to highlight the actions and the personality of the characters without it being spoken.  

Our Target Audience

      During this week, we have reserched more about our genre and the different aspects of it. Through the reaserch done, we have been able to come up with out target audience. 

    When coming up with our film idea, we catagorized it to go under the branch of psychological thrillers. This was decided since our film discusses how our main character Maya, has created an imaginary friedn, Lucy her best friend, in her head in order to cope with her trauma. Upon the reaserch done, we have discovered that these types of movies are the most intelectual, therefore the most demading of all of the sub-genres of thrillers. Most of the intellectual movies out there for the public to enjoy, such as Now You See Me Now You Don't, another thriller combined with criome, or even The Judge, a 2014 dramatic and comedy film, they all have as their target audience, young adults. 

    When it comes to the genre of thriller, the target audience could vary depending on its sub-genre. Usually action-thrillers are mostly aimed to a male audience in theri late teens, since its content of the films that are more approachable to men; this is also correlated to the amount of violence, action, and intensity of them which usually appeals to a younger generation. Also taking into consideration that most of thiose films have a great use of special effects and loud sounds, they are commonly not aspects of media appealing to older generations; an example of what was just explored, is a fairly new movie, Tenet.

    On the other hand, the target audience of Thrillers could also diverse from sub-genre to the other. In the genre of thriller, there's also a smaller sub-genre called romantic thrillers. In it, there's movies such as Greenland, Songbird, and Red Joan within others. Due to one of its aspects being that it involves the aspects of a romantic film, its target audience ranges between young adults all women, which is very different to the target audience of other thrillers. Lastly we also have political thrillers which aren't of a genre of main interest to young people; therefore, they are mostly aim to an older audience. A movie in this chategory is Enemy of the State, a 1998 film. 

    However, when it comes to psychologicakl thrillers, the target audience is very easy to identify. Usually these movies are usually intelectually demanding to a younger audience. Due to its precision and abundance in [sychological matters, these films, and more specifically oyr fiom, is targetted to young adults from 25 onwards. More often the very confusing turns in there films, and the mature themes that it contains are usually too much for the younger audiences to handle. With that being said, the target audience for our film are young adults going from 25 and onwards. 

Changes

    Throughout this week of planning, we have decided to change our opening a little. As we approach our filming days, we have come up with some obstacles that we decided to avoid by making our opening more clear and with more suspense. 

    The fact that the genre that we have chosen is suspense and thriller, we changed some aspects of the opening in order to give it the effect it needs to excel. As seen before in another post previously made, we have mentioned that our plot would consist of two best friends, Maya and Lucy, that as they are running in a park, they encounter a murder seen of another subject. Even though it could've been well executed with all the resources we have, we decided to change it in order to make it more thrilling. 

    Now our plot consists of two best friends Maya and Lucy, in which Lucy is a product of Maya's imagination. As seen in the post done expanding on the character development of Maya, we learn that she is a very kind girl with a lot of trauma. In order to cope with it, she creates this imaginary friend, Lucy, that balances her in every aspect one could imagine. She is one of the only people who she goes to talk to and tell her all about her problems, which makes sense she is talking only to herself. She has never been someone to make friends easily, and Lucy is the only person who has allowed her to express herself in another form, and not the shy reserved girl that she portrays to be.

    While in the park, as they are running, we see a series of tight medium, long, and close-up shots, emphasizing their feet and their surroundings. And then, Lucy stays behind to tie her shoelace but Maya does not realize; she keeps on running, and some cars go by making it quite weird since in that part of the park there was little to no human movement. Suddenly, there's a loud noise and Maya turns around to find that Lucy is dead. 

    The opening will end with Maya turning around in order to give more suspense to the opening and not give all the information away. 

Meet Lucy!

...and this is Lucy, Maya's best friend with who she shares everything. Maya and Lucy are partners in crime. Like peanut butter and jelly. Water to her Ocean. Glaze to the Donut. Do you get it now? They are like sisters. 

But even though their intense love for each other, they are quite different. Just like in Maya's post, we also created a mood board for Lucy that further analyses her character.

In contrast to Maya, Lucy is more of a bold person. One of the more technical ways we will be introducing that sense of wildness and 'danger' in her is by the color scheme chosen. In different to Maya, she is bolder, where we chose the colors green and purple. Green in media often represents power and danger; in this case, Lucy is very dangerous in the sense that she is not afraid to speak her mind and act upon it. She is the only person that makes Maya get out of her comfort zone, which is why they are best friends. The color purple is also a bold color, but more because of a hidden meaning that is discovered later in the movie. The color purple often means fantasy. As previously discussed, Lucy is a product of Maya's imagination in order to cope with her damage. Using the color purple will define and give a hint to the viewers about that hidden message.

Moving on, physically Lucy also stands out from the rest. She is a girl with dark features and a pop of color, red, on her hair, which makes her stand out from the rest (BOLD!!!) Moreover, she and Maya are also similar in some aspects which makes them so compatible. Not only;y they both like to exercise, but they also, don't hold a very healthy relationship with their parents. In the case of Lucy, her parents are almost never home due to traveling. They have to work most of the time, which makes them never be home. Unfortunately, it is an adding situation to be in, but fortunately, they have each other to help deal with it. Also talking about building a healthy life, they both like to exercise. As mentioned previously, Maya likes to exercise because it helps her get her mind out of her stresses, but in this case, Lucy loves to exercise because it makes her stronger and better. She is very competitive and likes to win always.

Meet Maya!

    Throughout this week, my team and I decided to expand more on our characters, and start the character development process. Today, I will be writing and expanding on our main character Maya Miller.

In the opening, our aim is to not only implement the conflict and the setting of the film but also we want to go into debt with our character development. In order to do this, we have taken our time to come out with the best version of Maya that will make our film a success. To make this process much easier, we decided to create a mood board. 

As seen in the mood board, Maya is a very unique person. To begin with, physically she is a tall girl with both brown hair and eyes, which she has gained from her mother; making her have some of the same attributes from her mother, symbolizes the love she had for her but also, as later discovered in the film, Maya has hallucination which emphasizes that in a sense she is 'sick' like her mother was. 

In terms of her parents, Maya lives only with her dad. Unfortunately, Maya's mom died when she was younger due to cancer. This left both she and her father devastated and scarred for life. Her dad is barely home since they had to move to a new hometown where her dad is never home due to work. However, even though her dad is never home, she does come from a wealthy family, which gives her the capacity to have all the resources she needs daily to survive, even though she doesn't have an authority figure always to mentor her. Moreover, back to them being scarred due to a traumatic experience, this has affected the way that Maya is and how it developed her personality.

In terms of Maya's personality, she is a very caring person. Even though she has gone through so much in the years she has lived, she still cares and is kind to others. This excessive kindness that she feels the necessity to give, she shares by contributing to her community. She is a lovely young girl who helps her community by doing acts of service. Doing so, she expresses her charisma and her loving personality. We chose to use the color pink to represent her; she is a very feminine girl and rather innocent as well. She is guided by her best friend Lucy and she is who leads Maya to do things that she would've never done alone. Also one of Lucy's most important aspects, she is very active; at times, she loves to excessive not only because of the health benefits but also because it takes her mind out of her stress.  However, every person has a dark side too. In this case, it has more to do with how she deals with her emotions. Losing a parent is never easy, and due to this Maya has become more closed up and reserve about who she shares her life and emotions with. This has lead her to become a shy girl with some insecurities, which is why she has a therapy who she goes to talk to weekly. The only other person who she trusts in her life is her best friend Lucy.