finished filming + editing part 2

Filming weekend Part 2 :000.

This weekend was filled with filming, AGAIN. It’s like deja vu. On Saturday (the 23rd, sorry for the late update, there has been a lot going on), I, once again, acted in another one of my friend’s projects for A Level. She’s doing a short story as well and asked me to be in and I, of course, said yes. What can I say, everyone wants me, watch out Hollywood. But ya, I had a great time, her project is awesome.  

[me playing the character ;)]

Like I said in my last post, I did actually finish filming the re-do clips on Saturday, so even more filming that day. YAYYYYY!!!! FILMING IS OVER and the shots actually look good this time. WE DID IT. 

Quick comparison of the shots from before and the shots now:

LOOKING AT SHARPIE

[before]

[after]

LOOKING INTO BOX

[before]

[after]

FLIPPING PEN CAP OFF

[before]

[after]

That’s a few of the shots that I had to re-do cause of lighting, and they turned out SO MUCH BETTER. I’m glad I re-did them, even if it was annoying. 

Ok, now that filming is actually over, I can get back to editing. Flashback to a while ago, after editing the first 40 seconds of the opening, I went back in the next day [the 21st, so before finishing filming] and finished up the rest of the opening, without the new shots that I filmed on Saturday. I included the bad shots to again act as a place holder like I did for the beginning part like I said in my last editing post. But, it’s not at all close to being done. I was having SERIOUS trouble with figuring out what kind of music to put in for the second portion of the opening. For context, after Iris gets the text message from Helen, the music from before stops as she responds, but then I want to have music again cause it’s just so awkward without it. But finding the right fit for music SUCKS. So, I just skipped over that and just went on with editing everything together, not worrying about music (cause it doesn't really need to be matched up to the music like the beginning portion does). The sounds that I did include, however, were the environmental sounds, which I used the same platforms I did before (Youtube Audio Library and Pixabay!!).

Flash forward back to today, now that I have all the re-done shots, I can go back in and replace them. So that’s what I did. Oh, and I did in fact find a decent piece of music to have for this part of the opening, once again from the wonderful Purple Planet. 

Now that I have the entire opening edited together (that’s insane) I have to go back in and add in all the credits and whatnot. I, of course, had to credit Purple Planet, but other than that most of the credits were just going to be to me. However, for the actors, since most opening scenes to a film include all the major actors, I had to make up a couple of names for the rest of the main cast, who I would say to be the mom, Helen, and the guy who befriends Iris after everything, and of course Iris. So I just had to come up with three random names, pretty easy. 

Anyways, here’s the beginning of the opening with all the credits edited together (no spoilers, you don’t get to see the entire thing just yet):

title brainstorm and fonts

If you’ve been paying close attention to my blog posts, then you might already know that I’ve had an idea for the title of my film for a while now. But here is a necessary post about how I actually got to this name.

 

Keeping the theme of greek mythology, I figured my title should allude to this in some way. I want it to relate to the myth of Icarus, which would work well since the beginning of the opening is about Iris working on a project about this myth. I don’t want it to be obvious thought, I want those who know the myth be the ones who can point out where I got the title from so during a rewatch they can notice the similarities between Iris and Icarus. So, after some intense brainstorm I came up with the title: Fallen. I choose this because Icarus falls from the sky, just like how Iris falls from what she is expected to be. Her parents want her to be the perfect angel and her friends want her to be more normal, but her coming out acts as a catalyst for her fall. However, unlike Icarus, she survives the fall and finds a life that is better than before. She meets new friends, those who accept her for who she is and won’t criticize her for being herself. She falls, but she gets back up again, and I want that to be the most important part of the film, so by having Fallen be my title, I can show this. 

Now onto fonts. On my editing platform, there are options for different variations of title fonts, so as I was looking at them, I came across one that was called JITTER. This title style was an animation of the title one letter at a time, with a slight wobble effect. I choose this style because I feel like it embodies the mysterious nature of the film, and also aligns well with the coming of age genre (at least in my eyes). The font that I chose was one called Open Sans Condensed, which is very simple and again I feel like it just captures the title perfectly. This font is also the one that I’m going to use for the credits that are placed throughout the beginning of the opening.

[the title sequence, with a cool sound effect of a typewriter cause I thought it was cool]

[picture of the font that I used for the credits]

Oh yeah, and I decided the order that I would put the credits in, which is:

1. Major actors

2. music producer

3. writer

4. editor

5. cinematographer

6. director

7. producer

[basically how I feel right about now]

ccr #2

I know, I know, you guys want to hear all about what I’m up to with editing, and I promise I’ll get to that, but I’ve still gotta plan out the second CCR. I’m leaving for a trip today, so I’m gonna have to film once I get back, which will be cutting it extremely close to the deadline, but I’ve got no other choice. 

Anyways, for my second CCR, I’m going to do a video similar to the WIRED Autocomplete Interviews that a ton of celebrities do. Here’s an example:

Instead of WIRED, I’m going to call it BIRED, just cause I thought it would be funny and would be a good way to kinda hint at where I got my idea from. So, here’s my script for that:

My name is Ayami Ratnayake and this is my BIRED autocomplete interview. 

[offscreen]

Here are some questions about your upcoming film Fallen.

Ok! I excited!

First up: What is Fallen’s target audience?

Fallen’s target audience consists of teenagers, typically ages 15-18, since it is a coming-of-age film. More specifically, however, the film is targeted towards teenagers that are a part of the LGBT+ community, as that is a major plot point that many can relate to. 

How does Fallen engage with this audience?

Through the content of the film, Fallen engages with it’s audience as the struggles that Iris, the main character, goes through is very relatable for many queer teens out there. They can see themselves in this character, which is something that hasn’t been available to them before. Queer characters, especially as the main character, are extremely rare to come up on, so with Iris and Fallen I hope to change this for the better.

How is Fallen going to be distributed?

My film will be available to audiences on free to use online streaming platforms, such as YouTube and Vimeo. I’m an amateur film maker, so it is unreasonable to think that my film’s would be made available on paid streaming platforms, such as Netflix, or in theaters. I will be posting the film on YouTube and Vimeo to gain traction and to start off my film career. 

What did Ayami Ratnayake research and plan her film opening?

The first thing I did, before even thinking about plot or anything, was research all about genre. Through my research I was able to find the coming of age genre, and I got sucked in. The coming of age genre is characterized by the main character’s journey through their life, mostly focusing on middle or high school years. I knew that I wanted to do a story about a queer kid, so I started to research about queer stories in the media and how they are most commonly portrayed. 

After research came planning. I created a Notion calendar, which allowed me to stay on track with my schedule. Then, I got to work on writing up a script, drawing a storyboard, and developing a shot list. All these preliminary steps allowed me to visualize and plan out how I wanted my opening to look. 

How did Ayami Ratnayake approach production of Fallen?

After finalizing my script, storyboard, and shot list, the next thing that I had to do was actually film the opening. But, before I could do this, however, I created a list of all the necessities I would need for filming day. This includes all the props I would need to have, my phone, tripod, and lights. Planning it all out beforehand really allowed me to stay organized on actual filming day. 

How has Ayami Ratnayake’s process evolved throughout her project?

In the beginning I didn’t really know what I even wanted to make my film about, so researching was really helpful. But, one day I sat down for the entirety of the class period and just wrote down every idea that popped into my head. This really helped me to figure out the actual plot of my film. I might’ve gone a little overboard, but at least I had an idea now. Planning took up a majority of the time, but I feel like I definitely could have planned a bit more, so that way during production, everything could’ve gone a lot smoother. The very first production day was a relative success, except, me being the dummy that I am, forgot to change the lighting for some of my shots, so a couple of them looked really bad. So, I had to set up another filming day to re-shoot these shots, which was annoying, but I’m glad I did it. Definitely for next time, I’m going to make sure to remember to set up the lights for every shot and not make that mistake again. 

Thank you BIRED for having me. I just wanted to end this by saying that in the beginning of this project I didn’t really know what I was doing. In class we had done a bunch of projects to get us ready for this huge portfolio project, the biggest one being the Music Marketing Project where we had to create a brand new artist and create a marketing plan for them. This project really helped me with how to approach this project and not just take it head on. It helped me understand that for such a big project you need to approach it step by step. The Music Marketing Project and all the other projects we had done throughout the school year we’re a HUGE help for this project. I feel like I’ve gotten so much better at all things filmmaking, especially the planning and production stages. I now understand that planning and brainstorming and just as important as filming and editing. 

CCR #2 script is done!

ccr #1

Ok switching up a little bit from editing and whatnot, it’s time to get to work on the CCRs (uh oh). I know in my last post I said I would re-film everything on Thrusday but that did not happen… oops. I’ll do it today I promise, I’ll update you guys soon, after I re-film. But today, I’m focusing on working on the CCR, cause, yeah, that’s a part of this project, almost forgot. 

For my first CCR, I want to do a vlog where the viewers are following me as I walk my dog and answer all their questions. Kinda like a walking Q and A. It would be chaotic, but I think that matches the entirety of my project, so it works.

 Now to write the script.

 

CCR #1 Script

What’s up ratSters, and welcome back to another video. Today I’m going to walk my dog and answer all your burning questions about my upcoming film FALLEN. Oh and spoiler alert, if you haven’t watched it yet, now is the time! 

First up, RatlikesCake asks: How does your film use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

Wow, that’s a great question. Ok, so the genre of my film is coming of age, which in essence is a film that follows the main character as they overcome the challenges that comes with the “transition from childhood to adulthood”, as MarsterClass states. Most coming of age films discuss topics such as romantic relationships, going to middle or high school, or parental struggles. Major characteristics of these types of films include character growth, emotional dialogue, and social commentary. For the most part, I stuck pretty close to these general conventions. My film follows the struggles of a young teenage girl as she learns who she is and overcomes the many obstacles that are thrown in her path. The film follows Iris as she finds out that her old friends are using her for her smarts, and her own parents don’t see her for who she truly is. As she finds a new support group, she learns to love herself in a way that never seemed possible before.

Another example of using these conventions is with the symbolism that I do through the action figure. Many coming of age films use symbolism to forge the path of their characters and the growth they go through in the film. For example, in Lady Bird, the protagonist breaks her wrist in the very beginning of the movie and wears a bright pink cast for the majority of the movie after that. The cast represents the separation between Lady Bird and her mother as they grow farther apart, especially as their struggle is exactly the reason why she gets the cast in the first place. Actually, here’s a clip of that scene (insert clip of LADY BIRD). Like Greta Gerwig, I used symbolism in my film to indicate the growth that happens throughout the film. The action figure that Iris finds symbolizes her strength to come out to her parents. She loves action figures, but isn’t supposed to because it’s not considered “lady like”. But after she finds it in her older brothers old things, she realizes that she is strong enough to be who she is. 

Geez I went on a rant there. Oh and I didn’t even answer your full questions, sorry bout that RatlikesCake. About representation in my film, the most obvious is that of the LGBT+ community. My main character, Iris, is a part of this community, and the story follows her as she comes out to her parents and friends. I wanted to incorporate this into my film because there are simply not enough films about the struggles of this community. I think it’s really important to showcase queer individuals in a positive light, and through representation in the media, especially through film, society can see what this community goes through, normalizing their existence, especially after the intense backlash that they have gotten, and still get to this day. It is especially important for queer children to be able to see that people like themselves do exist, and that even if they are currently surrounded by homophobic people, they can understand that it does get better. So yeah!

Wow that was a long question, jesus. Ok next question is from FilmLoverBoy: How did you integrate technologies such as software, hardware or online, in your project? I wanna make my own film but don’t know where to even start. 

Amazing question FilmLoverBoy. I’m no pro, but I’m happy to tell you all about what kind of equipment I used. During the pre-production phases, so like planning, brainstorming and all that crap, I used Notion, an application that allows you to keep all your ideas in one place. This was where I drew out a calendar for the entire project, from brainstorming, to filming, and then to editing. This app was SOOO useful, it kept me really organized and was basically the hotspot of all my creative endeavors. For script writing, shot planning, and research, I used Google Docs, a Google powered platform, free for anyone with a gmail account, that allowed me to type up any document I wanted. 

On the day of filming, I used my phone to capture all my video, but I used an app called BlackMagic that allowed me to manipulate my flimsy phone camera into a high level filming device. The shots turned out so cool with this app, plus it’s free, so for all my newbies out there check the app out, it’s awesome. Then for hardware stuff, I used a tripod to keep my phone steady, especially since this was all a one-man job, well except for when I forced my brother to film the things I couldn’t. But anyways, my tripod was a life-saver, so definitely recommend one of those. For lights, I used a simple ring light that could change color temperatures. I specifically used the yellowish temperature because that’s the kind of lighting that I thought would make my shots look more cinematic. 

The editing app that I used was called Davinci Resolve, and it allowed me to clip together all my videos into its final product. This app was also really helpful with animating the text messages that appear on screen. Oh and speaking of animation, I used FlipaClip to animate my production logo screen. Both these platforms were relatively easy to use, but make sure to watch a couple of tutorials before you start or it can get really overwhelming.  

Oh and how could I forget my one true love. Blogger. Blogger allowed me to track my progress throughout the entire project and especially helped me stay on track with my deadline. This is where all my deepest, darkest thoughts went, and also where I documented the entire process, so FilmLoverBoy, check my page out if you want any guidance on creating your own film. I started from the bottom, and so can you, I believe in you. Here’s the link to my blog, everyone go check it out. 

Wow and would you look at that, we’re already back home.  Time sure flies when you’re having fun. That’s all the time we have for today, especially since my dog is begging me to go inside and escape the Florida heat. Hope you enjoyed the video, and sorry if we couldn’t get to your questions. Feel free to DM me with any more questions you may have and I’ll do my best to get back to you! See you later, peace out, and goodbye.

Boom. Script #1 done. 

editing part 1

It’s time… EDITING. 

Since filming this weekend, I’ve gotten started with editing all the clips together for my final film opening. Before I could even begin editing, though, I had to find the perfect app that wouldn’t be too difficult to use or too simple (cause that’s boring boo). In the past I’ve used the app iMovie and yes this is a great editing app, but I wanted to explore a little into more difficult editing platforms. I’ve also used Premiere Pro during the sound project, but that app is a little too crazy for me. Plus, it isn’t compatible with my iPad, which is my main device that I do all my work on. So I got to researching various editing app that would align with what I wanted. 

I watched this video that gave examples of editing softwares and the pros and cons of each. The one app that caught my eye was Davinci Resolve. This app would allow me to be able to edit the videos together and do all the things that iMovie could do, but even more. But… after downloading the app onto my iPad, I realized that I had no idea what I was doing. So I went back to YouTube to find some tutorials to figure this monster out. This video really helped me. It broke down each feature of Davinci Resolve in a clear way and explained the basics really well. I’m basically a pro now. 

After understanding the basics of the app I got to editing. I first started with finding the perfect music for the beginning of the opening. I went onto the website Purple Planet, which has TONS of royalty free music. After an extensive browse through all the music available, I finally came across one that fit the vibe of my opening. 

Now that I have the music for the beginning portion of the opening, I started to edit the clips to match the music. After finishing that, I went to a bunch of sound effect databases to start to add various sound effects that I wanted to include. I didn’t want the only sound to be the music, so I looked up different background sounds that would be normal in the setting and what was happening in the scene (like pencil scratching or papers rustling). I went to the YouTube Audio Library (this is a godsend) and found a bunch of sounds and then I went to Pixabay for the ones that were left. Here’s a little clip of some of what I have so far:

Then I got to an obstacle. The text message part (where Iris gets a message from her “friends” asking if the project is done yet and her response). I wanted the text messages to appear on screen, instead of on her phone cause it would just look cleaner, kinda like in The Fault In Our Stars. But figuring out how to actually do that was insane. I went back to my trust friend, YouTube, and found this amazing video that taught me how to create this effect on Davinci Resolve. And here’s the end result:

Anyways, after finishing about 40 seconds of editing, I decided to take a break, but I’ll start back up on that tomorrow cause its a half day in school (thank god it’s almost spring break). But, there was one thing that was unfortunate during this editing time, I realized that a couple of my shots just did not look good. It was mainly because of the lighting, like in this shot where you can’t even see my face cause the lighting is just terrible. 

This is basically all my own fault cause in some of the shots I kinda forgot to change the position of the ring light… so ya this is my own downfall. So now I gotta re-film a couple of shots tomorrow. I still included the dark shots in the opening for now to act as a placeholder so that when I re-film, I can just place them into the spots. It’s not terrible though, there aren’t that many, it’s just so ANNOYING, like damn if I had just remembered to change the ring light this would’ve all been fine, but no I have the memory of a goldfish. 

the woes of filming

This weekend was filled with filming. On Saturday, I helped out my friend who’s in A level with his project. He’s doing a short film and he asked me to be in it. We filmed from around 2 to 6:30, so basically that entire day was spent filming. I had fun tho, his short film is really cool. 

[Me on the left, the guy who’s project it is in the middle, and another actor on the right]

Then on Sunday (since my sister finally left) I filmed my opening. I was able to get it all done!! I filmed from 7:30 to around 9ish. But, before I could start filming I had to get everything ready. Soooo to make sure I wouldn’t forget anything, I wrote out everything I needed to have ready before I could film.

Once I wrote all that down, I got everything ready to start filming. The first thing I did was create the poster board. That one took me a while, but here’s the finished product:

[its very light, sorry bout that]

I got all the information for the poster on The Collector.

After I finished the poster I got to work on arranging the bedroom to how I wanted it to look. The only thing that I needed to do was set up the workspace of Iris and here’s what I came up with. 

Now about the materials that I used. Tripods were my best friend during filming. I filmed the entire thing basically by myself, so using a tripod was incredibly useful, especially to keep everything from looking all wonky. I also stole my brother for a little bit to film the stuff that required someone who was tall, such as the shot where I grab the box from the closet, which would’ve been literally impossible with a tripod that is barely as tall as me. 

As you can probably tell by the picture, I went with a blue lighting to frame the room. I used my sister’s LED lights on her walls, which was very useful. Then I used a ring light to light the things that needed a bit more. Like when I filmed my face, I shined the ring light towards me so I wouldn’t be all dark and blue. The ring light was set to a yellow color, cause I thought that brought out the best tone for my film.

 

[In this close up you can see the blue lighting in the background and the yellow ring light on my face. I like how the ring light created a shadow on the other side of my face cause it creates a sense of mystery that is important in this scene]

Oh, wait I forgot to mention: costume design. So, I decided to dress myself in a comfy fit as Iris is just at home working on her project. I ended up wearing a blue University of Florida jacket, fitting in with the theme of blues. For pants I decided on a pair of sweatpants, again alluding to the home vibe that I have goin on. For my socks, I wore two mismatched spider-man socks because why not, I love spider-man. I didn’t focus too much on costume design as for my opening is set in Iris’ home, so a comfy fit was the way to go.

For my actual camera, I used my phone, but I used an app called BlackmagicCam to get the cinematic look that I wanted to have. I watched a video on how to use the app and once I got the hang of it, it got really easy, plus it made my shots look wayyy cooler. 

The biggest problem that I had while filming on Sunday was doing it all myself. Before every shot I had to make sure I was framed properly in the video, but that was hard to do as I couldn’t see myself as I filmed. I had to just trust that I was in the center, or wherever I needed to be for the shot, and if I wasn’t in the center, I would have to re-film it until I was. It was so frustrating to continuously be redoing shots because the composition wasn’t right, which I think would’ve been wayyy easier if I had someone else behind the camera, but I didn’t really have that option since it was already late at night and the only person who i could’ve asked would be my brother, which I already felt bad for asking him to film a bunch of stuff for me. In hindsight, I probably could’ve filmed last weekend while my sister was here and actually get her to be behind the camera, but whatever, I got it to work and that’s all that matters. 

[just another pic of the set up :)]

After this weekend that was PACKED with filming, I’ve come to realize that being behind the camera is not my strong suit. As I watched my friend film his short film and having a whole crew behind him (he got another one of our friends to be behind the camera while he acted and another person to hold the boom mic) I realized that that is not for me. My friend used a whole bunch of professional equipment that he borrowed from BECON, which looked cool, but that would’ve been way too intense for me, so my phone was the way to go. But, I’m excited to start editing, because that’s the kind of stuff that I actually like. Well that is what I’ve liked when we’ve done our past projects in this class, we’ll see how it goes for this project. 

[figured this would be a great way to end the post ;)]

representation

Let’s talk about the gays. 

In 1934, LGBTQ+ characters were banned from being portrayed in film, as per the “Hays Code”. Despite not outwardly saying that homosexuality was not allowed, they implied it, stopping all appearances. The ban was lifted in 1968, however, queer characters were only ever shown as queer-coded villians and it was never outright told these characters sexualities. After the ban was lifted, as well as after the Stonewall riots of 1969 (a series of riots at various gay bars that forever changed the fight for gay rights), The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released, including a cast of LGBTQ+ characters portrayed in a revolutionary positive light. Unfortunately, during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, the stigma surrounding homosexuals increased and representation decreased from an already low amount.

In the 90s, TV was really the only place where people could learn about this community, however the portray of them was always minuscule or in extremely stereotyped manners. When people would try to portray them in a more positive light, they most commonly were attacked with homophobic backlash. 

In more recent years, many pieces of cinema have included queer representation. In 2017, Moonlight became the first queer film to win an Oscar for Best Picture. Love, Simon was considered the first film to include a gay man as the main character. Even in the superhero world, a gay superhero was introduced in Eternals by Marvel, which was revolutionary. Many queer actors also have gotten many roles in Hollywood, such as Todd Chavez from Bojack Horeman, who recently came out as asexual. 

Even children’s cartoons have taken the tide in this type of representation. Dreamwork’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is focused around a lesbian romance between two main characters in the series (if you want to read more about this one I actually wrote a whole blog post about it). Even Disney, notorious for their continued distaste towards this community, had their own cartoon, The Owl House, that featured many queer characters. Despite their cancelation of this show due to disagreements, the representation shown in this show was revolutionary as it portrayed a younger lesbian couple in a refreshing and normal way (yes they’re witches, but their story just feels so normal). This kind of representation, especially the fact that it’s being shown to children, is incredibly important. To young queer kids, it shows them that their feelings are normal and okay, and to non-queer children, it familiarizes them with this concept and normalizes it, making it easier for them to be accepting of all kinds of people. 

I really think it’s important to showcase queer individuals in a positive light, and through representation in the media, especially through film, society can see what this community goes through, normalizing their existence, especially after the intense backlash that they have gotten, and still get to this day. It is especially important for queer children to be able to see that people like themselves do exist, and that even if they are currently surrounded by homophobic people, they can understand that it does get better. 

Here are some more amazing queer films and cartoons that you should definitely check out:

45 best queer movies

queer children’s cartoons

REFERENCES

Cragg, Dan. “LGBT History Month – a History of LGBT Representation in TV/Film.” Your Bristol Story, 16 Feb. 2022, student.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2022/02/17/lgbt-history-month-a-history-of-lgbt-representation-in-tv-film/comment-page-1/. 

“1969 Stonewall Riots - Origins, Timeline & Leaders.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/the-stonewall-riots. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024. 

thinking about the CCR

 Today in class we learned about the creative critical reflection. My teacher told us all about what is expected of us for this portion of the portfolio project. Here’s a quick rundown of what we need to discuss:

The main purpose of this portion is to reflect on the production as a whole, that means planning, production and post-production. We have to respond to four different questions in whatever style we want. We can be as creative as we want, the only requirement is answering the questions. Wait, but what are the questions?

That’s a good question (hehe). The first question is about genre convention and the research that we did on our genre and how we used those conventions in our own project. The next one is all about audience and how we could possibly distribute our film if given the change. Then we have to discuss what production skills we developed while working on this project. And finally, how we used different technologies to aid us through the process. My teacher told us how we should respond to these questions and how to make our CCR’s as effective as possible. Here are my notes from what she told us. 

So what I need to think about now is how I want to actually answer these questions (and of course what I want to talk about). It’s supposed to be creative, which is not something I’m that good at, but we did look at some examples in class today. One person did their CCR in the form of an interview, almost like a talk show. Another person did theirs based on a popular trend. Overall, though, they all took creative turns on their reflection. Now, I just need to think about what I want to do with their part of the project and get to working on a script to actually answer the questions. 

t-minus four weeks…

Four weeks left until this project must be turned it. God damn, the deadline is creeping up fast. Ok, I know I said I would start filming this weekend in my last blog posts, but I have a little set back. My sister is staying for her spring break :0000. It’s great and all, but now we’re actually doing stuff on the weekend, like today we spent the whole day out doing stuff and then tomorrow we’re going of to the city to hang out and go to the beach. Which leave’s basically no time to actually start filming. So, not saying I blame my sister…but I blame my sister. 

BUT…. I did get everything else on my list of “things to do before filming” even though I will not be filming this weekend (well besides the title, which will be a problem for future Ayami). So here’s all of that (they’re small things, so I figured I’d just put them all into one LONG blog post instead of a bunch of baby ones).

PROPS

Ok, so for props, I started to think about everything I could possible need for each scene and wrote them all into my planner:

The first thing on there is obviously the action figure, which is basically the one thing I have to go out and buy. I have everything else that I need at home, so I’m basically all good on props. Oh, but one thing I do need to actually make is the poster board, cause it’s gotta be somewhat completed to make it look like Iris is working on it. I also have to write the names of each box onto a cardboard box, which won’t be difficult, but I gotta make sure I don’t forget about it. 

MISE-EN-SCENE

For mise-en-scene, I first thought about what I want Iris to wear, cause she’s the only one who will actually be shown on screen for the opening. This wasn’t that difficult cause the person I casted for her (no spoilers!! I’ll get to that…) dresses how I want her to dress. She’s going to be in very casual clothes, cause she’s just chilling at home and not going anywhere. 

Then after figuring that out, I thought about how I want the lighting and everything to look like on camera. I started to experiment with different colors on my LED lights and how it looked like on camera, and here’s a cool picture I got:

I look dumb, but that’s beside the point. I like how the blue contrasts the glowing whiteness that’s coming out of the box, which is exactly how I want the scene where she’s opening Patrick’s box up to look like. The blue adds to the mystery of it all, and also creates a sense of curiosity, which is perfect. I think it could use a little work, but so far, it’s pretty decent. 

While Iris is working on the project, I don’t want the lighting to be blue, instead I want it to look normal, and slightly darker, so that the contrast between that scene and the opening box scene is apparent, highlighting the tone shift. 

ACTORS

Ok, so I kinda hinted toward this, and I think it’s kinda obvious, but I’m going to be playing Iris for the opening. I don’t really want to go through the pain of having to cast someone and then figuring out schedules and whatnot, so having me be the main character is just way more efficient and just makes a lot more sense. But, that does mean I’m going to have to film majority of my shots with a tripod, and maybe forcing my little brother to help me out if anything. It won’t be bad though, plus I can work at my own pace, so it’ll be great.

SETTING

For setting, since the entire opening is set in Iris’ room, I figured I’d just use a room in my house to do it in. My room is a little too crazy for her, plus it’s incredibly messy and just does not fit the vide of Iris at all. So, instead I’m going to be using my sister’s room. Since she moved out for college, her room has basically nothing in it besides a bed and a desk and a couple of stuffed animals and posters. Since all we will be seeing is the floor and her bed, this is perfect, plus her room is a lot bigger than mine (she’s older, so she got first pick ugh). Which is also another reason why it’ll be easier to film once she’s gone back to college so I can steal her room (heh).

 

[here’s the room and my sister sleeping in her bed]

Boom, so that’s everything that was on the list that I needed to get done before starting to film, which is kinda funny cause I actually will not be filming yet. BUT, it’s fine cause I did put in time in my calendar just in case something like this did happen, so I’m still sort of on track. I got this…hopefully as least. 

another change o.O

Ok so I’ve been thinking about different places where I could film the store section of my opening, and I came across a roadblock. How am I supposed to film a store, which is a public space where other people would be (ew)? And would I have to get permission to even film in the store? The answer to that question:

So that’s a no go. Target also does not allow filming in store, so I started to think about how I could fix this massive problem. I got to brainstorming and I realized that I would have to completely cut the store scene from my opening. The question is how would I introduce the action figure without Iris buying it from a store? and what else can I include instead of this scene? Soooo, I came up with the idea that instead of her having to go to the store to buy a new sharpie, instead she goes to her closet (get it cause she’s stuck in the closet hah) where she finds a box of school supplies. Next to this box is a box that is labeled “Brother’s shit”. So, here I would introduce the idea that Iris had a brother, whose name has still not been decided, and something mysterious happened to him (or he just went to college. idk I wanna keep it mysterious, let me live). She gets intrigued by this box and grabs it, opening it and finding all of her brother’s old comic’s and action figures. Before she can explore the remainders of the box, she gets a text from her mom telling her she’s almost home, and she rushes to shove the box under her bed, hiding the evidence. Iris would then continue to work on her project, the whole reason why she was looking in the closet to begin with, but is extremely distracted by the contents of the box. Overwhelmed with curiosity, she grabs the box from under her bed, opens it and grabs an action figure. The end (well not really, but that’s where I’d end my opening). 

This scene will actually work a lot better than my original idea. Now that I’m not filming in a store, that gets rid of the hassle of asking if I could film there and then actually going there and spending the day filming. Plus, I wouldn’t have been able to control the lighting of the shots, which would just not look good under the fluorescent lighting of Walmart. Additionally, I cut out the scene of the flashback to the memory of young Iris, which I think is MUCH better because first of all I don’t really know that many little kids, plus convincing their parents if I could take them to a random Walmart to film would not have ended well. Overall, I think this change was extremely necessary and works a lot better than a change of setting. 

Ok, so now that I have an idea, I started to redo my story board, script and shot list.

STORY BOARD

Ok, now that the storyboard is completed, I got straight to work on my script. While writing my script I came across the perfect name for the brother: Patrick. Ok it sounds dumb but hear me out. I based his name off of Patroclus, an ancient greek warrior. Patroclus was the only one who could calm Achilles (another warrior, the greatest) when he was mad, but his death during the Trojan War greatly affected Achilles. This, however, is not why I wanted to include an allusion to his name. Instead I did it because Achilles and Patroclus were lovers. Yup, it’s true!! So I figured by alluding to the name Patroclus I could further add to the overall theme of my film, but in a very unnoticeable detail that would only be caught on by lovers of Greek mythology. It’s so subtle and I love it.

SCRIPT

Ok, script is all done. Oh and one thing I want to mention about my script was how I represented the mother. I wrote her text message in the exact way my mother sends texts. With a period a space away from the text, which I feel like is very important to include (it’s really not but I think it’s funny).

Next up is the shot list. This is literally just a written out version of my storyboard, but I still want to have it because it will be really helpful to keep track of all the shots and during the editing process, which I went more into depth in my blog post that was only about shot list creation. 

SHOT LIST

WOW ok that was a lot of changing up to do, but now I feel much more confident in my film opening. But, now that I’ve changed more than half of my opening, filming is gonna have to be pushed back a little bit. I’m gonna try my best to maybe try filming this weekend with the beginning portion, but no promises. We’ll see what happens. 

REFERENCES

Discentes. (2023, September 17). The very best men in greek mythology. https://web.sas.upenn.edu/discentes/2023/07/30/the-very-best-men-in-greek-mythology/ 

Can I film inside a walmart store? (n.d.). https://corporate.walmart.com/askwalmart/can-i-film-inside-a-walmart-store#:~:text=Out%20of%20respect%20for%20our,right%20to%20enforce%20that%20policy.