Which one is better?

Helloooooo!
I was originally planning on shooting today but I want this film to be the best it can be and for that to work I needed this one extra day to finish planning out a few things. The first thing I did today was clean up my room and set up the setting design. The setting design of my room is made to give out the feeling that this was a young adult or an older teenager, which is given away by the college sign up in her wall, pictures with her friends, boyfriend and family, and the colors of the room ranging from grey to pink. After cleaning up my room, I decided it was time to add a little bit of decoration. I took some of mine and my brother's trophies and put them in a stand that is over my bed, which I also put some lights on. I wrote a to do list in a chalk board I have, I added pictures to picture frames that were empty, I put an open notebook in my desk, and I set up some books in my night stand.

After setting everything up, I also decided on the costume design. Like I have mentioned my my previous blogs, I want the main character to wear a dress to reinforce the type of person she is and so that the undressing scene works out the way I am planning. I also took pictures of the set design in the day time and in the nighttime with the light that comes along with the tripod. I finally decided that I want to use the day time lighting. Tomorrow I am definitely filming my opening film as soon as I wake up and get my makeup done.

I changed a lot

I was planning on shooting today BUT a lot of things have changed. My dad finally brought the tripod from the office so I finally had everything set. When I set the tripod down and everything else in the front of my front door to film,I noticed that this was not what I wanted to do. I have never been a fan of the idea of movies or TV shows beginning with someone walking through the front door and saying hi to their family, I  feel like it would have looked forced and really staged. I took about an hour trying to get it right, making the time fly by. After feeling like nothing felt right, I sat down and thought about what I could do to adapt my story into something a little bit different. I finally had an idea which I actually really liked, so I called my friend who is currently in AICE Media A Level to get some feedback. I told her my idea and she loved it. SO I went for it.

Instead of the the film opening beginning at the front door area of my house, it will already start in my room. This way I could avoid the unnatural beginning that I am avoiding, the complication of going up the stairs in my two story house, getting the 6 people living in my house right now to cooperate and having to clean up my whole house instead of only my room. I want to begin the opening film with still shots of my room so that I can put the credits there. I want to make it look as if she just got back from shopping, already said hi to everyone in her household and is already in her room doing her own thing. This is where the rest of the script stays the same. She will try on her new clothe and find the note inside the coat. Once I figured all of this out it was already dark out and I wasn't sure if I wanted to film it in the dark or not so I will figure that out tomorrow. I am really happy and excited for what I came up with, I am going to try to film in the next two days. 

XOXO

-Corina

Reschedule

Hellooooo!!

So the due date is April 13th. This means that now that I have everything gathered I need to finally get this done. Tomorrow my dad is officially bringing in the tripod and the lighting ring so I am set to start my filming tomorrow and get that completely done and edited by the end of the week. By next Monday it will be April 6th, so I will have time to complete the rest of my project and turn it in by the due date. Because of the pandemic that we are currently facing, the plan I had to film at the beginning of the journey can't be followed any longer. I was lucky enough to get the extension and now I just need to focus and the filming and editing part this whole week. I feel like between Monday and Wednesday I can definitely have all the filming done and I can dedicate the rest of the week to edit. The editing process may take a little longer because I need to choose a song, a title and just overall edit my opening film to the best it can be. I hope I am not off with the schedule and that I don't ever feel rushed. I feel confident about what I am doing and how it will turn out by the due date, I just need to take advantage of all the free time I have at home without going to school physically or going out at all and focus on getting my opening film done and have it look amazing. I am actually really excited to finally do this project and put all that I have been taught throughout the year to the test.

XOXO
-Corina

Things I must do before shooting

Hellooooo!!

Last time I wrote my blog about how everything will go down when I start filming my opening film. Before that actually happens I need to clear up a few things. First of all, I am going to need some help. Since my family is on complete lockdown, which means that no one can come in or out of the house, I will need help from them. Right before writing my blog I spoke to my mother and my brother to see if they will help me with getting my angles and shots right basically and my mom with doing that little line at the beginning of the film. Everyone in my household agreed to help me when I approached them with my concerns. My dad even told me that in his office (he works in the dental business) he has a tripod and a lighting ring that might be useful for my film. I was extremely glad when he told me this because I was about to buy my own one on Amazon (which I will probably still do for future opportunities). As soon as my dad can bring me the tripod and I decide which costume design I will choose for my character I will start filming. With the costume design I am still sticking to what I chose in a previous blog, the only difference is that the mystery girl is no longer in the picture. Lets get this doneeee!!!

XOXO
-Corina

Opening film (detailed!!!)

Hellooooo!!

Since I have already decided that I am going to be doing my original "Vice Versa" piece, I just need to have a detailed idea of how everything is going to look. I decided that the film is going to start by with a shot of the front door closed, pointing towards the wall and the title showing full screen. The upbeat music will be playing during this part and throughout the rest of the opening film. The title disappears and the door opens to show a girl walking in through that door ( I am that girl). The girl announces that she has arrived as soon as she steps inside, wearing a dress and with some shopping bags in her hands. She will be shown saying hi to her mother who asks her how it went and she'll respond saying that it went well. This will be a tracking shot showing her walk inside the house, up the stairs and into her room. This shot will be cut when she walks in her room and closes the door and throughout this whole scene the necessary credits will be shown. Inside her room she sits down in her bed with the shopping bags for a minute, she looks inside the bag, takes out what she bought and takes a look at the receipt. This will reinforce the idea that she just came back from making these purchases while she was shopping. She will then step in front of the mirror, look at herself for a minute and start to undress. The ideas that I had previously about the undressing scene in the store in my original idea (before the coronavirus) will stay the same. I really liked the shots and angles that I had chosen and written down in my storyboard, therefore that will remain intact (except for the fact that it is not longer in a store but in her house). I will also include all the shots that I had planned on her putting on the clothes that she just bought, including the coat. I will see how much time I will already have by this point of the film, if I need more time then I will add more outfits to try on. If this is not the case, then she will try on one outfit and put the coat over that outfit. Then it will show the girl checking herself out on the mirror in her room. As she is trying on different poses to see how much she loves the outfit (most of us try on what we bought in a store once we get home, don't deny it), she puts her hands in her pockets and feels something. That something appeared to be a small piece of paper, which she obviously opened up due to curiosity. This scene will also stay the same in terms of the previous shot ideas I had, showing her terrified and confused look to then show what the note read: "Please help me" along with a phone number. This is where the scene ends, leaving the audience with many questions such as 'who wrote that?' 'Why did they write that?' 'What will she do about it?'

Here is a picture of me (the new main actress) with my quarantine look

XOXO

-Corina

Update!!

Helloooooo!

Alright, my final decision is that I will be doing my original idea with the adaptations that I mentioned in my previous blog. I will still keep the name 'Vice Versa' because it still fits the overall plot of the story. I will be the actress of my opening film and will direct everything, however I will need help from my mother and my brother to shoot everything. I know that this will be kind of hard because I was planning many things to make the best out of my film but I need to adjust to the situation. The first obstacle I am facing is that I was planning on borrowing a tripod from my teacher but I will no longer see her so that she can give it to me. Another problem I am facing is that I had a lot of people working with me on this and now I can't work with them due to the lockdown and now I feel like there is a lot of weight on my shoulders. I also had to change the whole setting of my story and even the opening film plot slightly, but I feel like I will be able to work around it. I am going to appreciate the time that I will have at home this week and next week before online classes start because school is closed to shoot everything. I will be contacting my teacher to see what she thinks about my idea and to see if there are any new updates. The only new update she told us about is that because of the COVID-19 situation the due date has been moved to April 13th, which makes me feel a little better because I get to mentally adjust to the changes I have to make and focus on making a new storyboard, ideas, etc.

P.S: PLEASE STAY SAFE! STAY HOME, WEAR A MASK AND GLOVES IF YOU GO OUT, WASH YOUR HANDS, SOCIAL DISTANCING!!!!

XOXO

-Corina

WHAT DO I DO?

Helloooo!

So the COVID-19 situation seems to be getting worse. This problem isn't going away any time soon so I officially have to change my opening film. I have thought about what I am going to do during all this free time that I have and I have concluded that I have two options. My first option is to change my story completely. I could go back to the 'Runaway' opening film in which a teenage girl (in this case me as the actress) is clearly getting ready to runaway from her home by showing her pack a bag with her necessities. As she is doing so with a stressed look on her face, there would be flashbacks of her life at home which consisted of abusive parents calling her names, fighting with each other and physically abusing her. Another option is to do a completely different opening film idea that I would have to think more deeply about. My last option is to adapt the original idea I already had about 'Vice Versa.' I could adapt this story by doing various things. First of all, the first scene in which the mystery girl is hiding the note would not be shown at all. This will make the story consist of only one actress, which would be me. The opening film would start with a girl arriving to her house with shopping bags, clearly showing that she is back from the mall or a store. The girl is shown walking into her house, up the stairs and into her room. When she gets to her room, she decides to try on the clothes that she just bought. This scene will start with her crouching down in front of the bags that she was seen walking into her house with and taking out a receipt to read it, reinforcing the fact that she just bought those clothes. This would then proceed to the scene in which she takes off her clothe that I had originally planned and putting on the clothes that she just bought. Like in the original idea, she checks herself out in the mirror, decides to put the coat she just purchased only to find the note in her pocket. She reads the "please help me" along with the phone number on the note, leaving her with a confused look on her face and ending the film.

XOXO
-Corina

Adapting

Helloooo!

I am not going to lie, things are changing very quickly. Every day I wake up and there and new updates on COVID-19. The amount of cases in the world, Florida and even Broward County are going up. This is a global issue that can change from one day to the next, I know that it will probably take at least three months for things to go back to the way they were. The project is due pretty soon and I know that the due date is one of the things that probably won't change so I must do what I previously said and what my teacher has been telling us: adapt.

My mom has officially put us on lockdown, which is a problem. My opening film was originally going to be shot in a boutique. I had finally found a Boutique to shoot in. I went to Isabelle's Boutique, which is about 10 minutes from my house, and talked to the manager who actually let me shoot there. Two days later, the virus seemed to spread rapidly, increasing the amount of cases and the paranoia. I officially can't shoot there and also I can't leave my house and anyone that isn't a part of my family can come in, therefore I need to change a few things. I need to change the setting, instead of it being in the boutique it needs to be in my house. I also need to change the characters because my friends that were going to act in my opening film can no longer do so. I also can't have my friends that were helping me shoot do so anymore. I might even have to change the script or the whole story itself. I am freaking out a little bit but I know what I can work through this and that my teacher will help us. Not only that but I feel like everyone can understand how severe the situation in globally and how every AICE media student is facing the situation.

XOXO
-Corina

I don't know how to feel

As everyone knows there is a global crisis going on. On Wednesday I mentioned that I wasn't sure of what was going to happen with this virus but I did not expect it to escalate this quickly. It turns out they even cancelled school for us. I am going to be completely honest, I don't even know how to feel and I just keep thinking of how this could affect my project.

My mom is going crazy. Every time I cough she gets all worried and she wants us to go on quarantine to make sure we are fine. I understand why she is worried, her job is to make sure we are always okay and this virus is extremely contagious. The problem with being locked up in my house is that I have no idea how I am going to shoot my opening film in the next week. If they make everyone be on house arrest, like they have done in many places, I don't know what I will do. I am totally freaking out over this and I can't even go to class to express how I feel to my teacher because they literally cancelled school for I don't know how long. Lets see what happens.

XOXO
-Corina

Outfits Time

For Vice Versa I really think that there needs to be an emphasis on the difference between the two main characters since the whole title is based on that.

Mystery Girl:

For Mystery Girl's outfits I imagined something that keeps the idea of the girl being peculiar, not showing her identity. What better way to do this than to add a hoodie. The idea is to not make this character look like a homeless person, yet they can't appear too luxurious or dressed up. The way she dresses can represent the situation she is in, something that is unknown, however we do know that it is not the best life and she is facing a severe issue, unlike our other character. 

The Coat Girl: 

For this character I imagine the complete opposite. I expect her to come into the store wearing a nice dress. This is because the shots I have in mind for this scene require a dress, she will unzip her dress and it will also show how it drops to her feet as she takes it off. I also imagine her trying on a formalish coat due to her style, introducing her already.

Good News and Bad News

Hellooooo!

Soooo like I said I asked my friends if they would help me shoot my video and they said yes! I decided that I am not going to act in my opening film so that I can focus on producing and directing everything. I decided that I am going to shoot everything this week and next week, however there is a little problem. The little problem is called Coronavirus. This virus has been getting worse every day and I truly don't know what is going to happen with it. Lets see how this week goes to see how worried I should truly be over it.

Today I was doing a project in a plaza and saw a boutique, Isabelle's Boutique. I walked inside and told them that I am a high school student that is in an AICE Media class and needed to find a boutique to shoot my opening film in. I told them what the project is about and they told me that the manager was not currently in the store so I needed to come back another day to ask. At least they didn't deny my request :)

XOXO
-Corina

Who's helping me?

Helloooo!

I decided to organize myself and finally decide who is going to help me in the process of making my opening film. These people will help me in many ways such as acting in my film, helping me shoot, helping me edit and by giving me advice on decisions I should make when doing this project. 

First of all, I will need two actresses to act in my opening film. I was debating on whether I should act along with another one of my friends or if I should get two of my friends to act and I just focus on how the overall production is coming out. If I were to use one friend to help me out it would just be Alejandra Ruiz and if I were to use two it would be my friend Alejandra along with my friend Ana Gabriela Jurado. The main reason I chose Alejandra is because she is available a lot of the time and because she has been acting for years, she has experience with it. 

This is Ana Gabriela Jurado 

This is Corina Vera (me)

This is Alejandra Ruiz

When it comes to editing and filming, I have asked two of my friends if they could help me if I needed their help and they said yes. The names of these friends are Ana Rubin and Jonathan Casaverde. I asked them two for advice because the took this course last year and are continuing with AICE Media A Level this year. Not only that but they are really into media so they're very talented, it's what they want to study in the upcoming years in the university. 

I feel better knowing that I have all of these people to count in. If there are any changes with the actresses I will update it here. I am planning on talking to them again tomorrow to confirm that they will help me in my project without a doubt. 

XOXO

-Corina

A Little Update

Helloooo again!!

I am not going to lie, I feel like this due date is approaching us faster than I expected and I am freaking out a little bit. My original schedule has not been followed as planned but I am confident that I am going to get this done and it is going to be amazing. It is now Sunday and I have officially got a few weeks to shoot and edit. I feel like I am doing well, especially because when we did group critiques there were some people that were way behind. Not only that but I have basically got most of it down: my title, the idea of the music I want, my storyboard is done, I found a friend that can help me shoot, I have my plot. Right now I am missing actors. I honestly think I want to act in my opening scene, however I will still need someone else to play the other role. Now that I think about it, one of my really close friends has been acting her whole life, I will ask her in school tomorrow to see what she says. 

I also have to see where I will be able to shoot my opening film. The good thing about my opening film is that it all takes place in the same set design, all I need is permission from a store or a boutique to shoot. The other day I was in a plazas where one of my filming options is in and I asked for permission. They told me that the manager wasn't there at the time so I had to come another time to see what she would say. I am planning on giving all of the filming options a call tomorrow or Tuesday so that I can get that stress off my shoulders. The thing is I am trying to get most of my shooting done the week before spring break (which is 2 weeks) and the week before that since I am not traveling. This way I will have time to do the editing and everything else afterwards. The truth is I just don't want things to overwhelm me and have the due date come before I have time to do things calmly. I believe in me, lets do this. 

Current mood: 

XOXO

-Corina 

Title Decided!

This is a very exciting moment for me. I have finally decided what title I will be using for this opening film. 

I honestly feel like titles are extremely important, they can determine whether a person decides to watch a film or not. For example, if a film has a title that doesn't give it all away and makes you wonder as the audience what the plot really is about people may be more attracted to it. Because of that I have decided to use Vice Versa as my title. The Call and Runaway were way too straight forward, they gave away a large part of the story. Not only that but they are the typical titles that are basic and you feel like you have heard those names about a thousand times. I didn't end up liking them that much. The other option that I had was The One That Got Away which I actually liked a lot but I feel like a catchier and easier name would be more effective and will be more eye catching  to my target audience. I crossed all of those out and I ended up loving Vice Versa. At first I didn't like it that much but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to choose that one. 

Vice Versa fits the story perfectly without giving it away. Vice Versa is used when talking about to opposite things, in this case the life of the two girls on the film opening (should I give them names?). The girl that is shown in the opening film is clearly going through something that is not so good. She is crying out for help, the way she is acting shows her desperation and stress to get out of the situation she is in and fast. On the other hand, the other girl is calmly taking her day off to go shopping just because, grabbing everything and anything she likes. When you see her you get the feeling that she is always happy in her own world, dealing with normal problems just like anyone else. As she finds that note in the pocket of the coat those two worlds collide and their worlds and reversed. The normal girl is faced with a problem that she has never had to face and the desperate girl is faced with hope. 

XOXO

-Corina

Storyboard

I finally did my storyboard!
I felt a lot better to visualize all of the ideas I have in mind. I decided to end up drawing my storyboard instead of the website that was recommended to me but I feel like they both would've worked out perfectly fine. Not only did I draw the opening film myself BUT in the caption spaces that were below each square I wrote down how I am planning on shooting every part. By this I mean that I wrote different shot and angle options that I will use throughout the film.

Here they are :)

Group Critiques

Hellooooooo!!
Today in class we did group critiques and it was sooo effective. I felt as if all my doubts were talked about and worked through with the help of 4 of my peers. I told them all the problems I have been having such as finding a location, choosing a title, choosing a font for that title, finding new music and they just gave me tips on how to improve my project overall.

First of all, they recommended a website where I can do my storyboard which I am planning on doing this week. Also the helped me clear up some things such as the title, between the call, runaway and vice versa. I think Vice Versa is going to end up winning but I will sleep on it and then see what I like the best. I also told them about my dilemma on going to all the different boutiques and they told me that I should call them instead of wasting my gas and a whole day on doing that, which is actually pretty smart. I also asked them about the font and we all agreed that I should choose a title, film my video and when I am editing I can see which one fits the story best depending on the outcome of it. I also told them that I need to make a decision on what music I should use, so we asked my teacher where we can find more copyright free music and she told us that on her Pinterest page there is a lot sooo I am going to take a look at that when I am editing. Lastly, I asked them if the first scene, in which the mystery girl is anxiously trying to find a paper to write a note and find a place to hide it, should have music or not. They ended up agreeing with me in leaving the sounds and the music of the store playing at the time and on top of that add panting and low heartbeat sounds to intensify the scene.

Putting us in groups to discuss everything was a really big stress relief. I didn't only feel better with the advice they gave me but I felt good about helping the others improve their film opening and making them feel the same feeling of stress relief. I hope we got to do this again soon, I really really enjoyed it.

XOXO
-Corina

What else should I do?

Not only do I have to choose what title and what setting I want BUT another crucial decision I have to make is the sound and the fonts of the title. 

These are the titles I have liked, however I feel like I need to make up my mind on what title I want so that I can see how the name would look in these fonts, if I make a decision now it won't be as accurate. When I do choose a title I need to see which font fits the name and the plot better and which one the target audience would like the most.

Another decision I have to make is what sounds I would like to use throughout the two minutes of my film opening. For the beginning scene, in which the mysterious girl is writing down something as fast as possible and roaming through the clothes to hide it, stressed out and scared, I have to decide what I want to do. My decisions are to just put a heartbeat sound and breathing noises coming from her to reinforce how she's feeling at that moment or include a song along with that to add suspense. I think I am going to like better the breathing and heartbeat sounds that suddenly stop as the title shows up on the screen and the following scene of the other girl in the store shows up. For this next scene I wanted to changed the tone and add some upbeat, "cool" music as the girl comes in the store and starts to try on clothes. I don't have a specific song that I would really like to play for this scene so I was looking for copyright free music that I could use:

Music:
All of these copyright free songs come from Bensound.com

Under the groovy and the pop sections:

-Easy

-This Is Your Time

-Spinning Collins

-Creative Minds

-Go Get It *

-Punky *

-Can You Feel It *

* means that those were the ones I liked the most

The song that I choose will slowly fade and the girl finds the note in her pocket, gives it a confused look and the scene ends.