Coming together

 Okay so to begin I have my planned production and my main character. I know my main character actor is a very active person so I planned my idea around his day-to-day. He goes to the gym quite frequently so I am going to see if it is possible to film at that location. 

Next, I have an idea of who my female character could be. I wanted to choose someone who wasn't in my media studies class so it wouldn't break the immersion that could take place in the storyline. I know quite a few people who would be perfect to cast in my piece in my class but I feel like it would ruin the exposure. I have been thinking of all of the people I have met at my school and what person would be compatible with my main character. Two people have come to mind in the last 24 hours and I have asked one so far who could possibly work. The only impediment to my choosing is if the people I cast can act effectively for the switch of roles I need for the female character. 

There needs to appear a connection between the two characters that shows a semblance of an actual friendship. Putting two people on screen who don't know each other and trying to make them have a connection would most likely show in the filming. The characters do know each other in real life and I would say they get along quite well. I am lucky to have met both of these peers at a mutual workplace. I should know by later in the day if the female peer will want to participate in my production.

The only difficulty I think that might appear is scheduling conflicts. I know my male peer is more than eager to help in ways he can. I do know times over the weekend when both of these peers were able to hang out after work - so I can possibly plan a night shooting at this time. Planning to shoot at night was part of my plan and late in the night, there would be fewer distractions to appear in the background.

To create car sounds, many of my coworkers have ranging cars of loudness and I can record these noises to help create the needed sounds for the car crash scene and the speedings. 

I really think I can manipulate a shot at night to look like speeding by being inside the car. I can show a quick increase in speed of the car on the speedometer and when the car is off - the character is pushing the gas all the way down. Then I can have my character going at normal speed but at night you would only be able to tell the car is moving and not how fast. I add sound effects to support the idea of speeding.

Anyways, I am going to talk to my actors on days they can film. I will need to film the guy more than the girl anyways so I will work around his schedule more. Possibly by next weekend, I can get a lot of shooting done because we would have that nighttime opportunity. I do not know if the guy works next weekend but if not we can still utilize the empty parking lot to shoot in or behind the plaza we work in after the majority of the businesses close for the night. 

stay tuned...

Storyline Plan

 I want to put all of my ideas in order and this piece will be similar to my shot list ideas. I would like to chronological order and sequence with more information so I can get a better grasp of what I am going to shoot. 

• establishing shot showing nature or maybe a view outside a car window. I would like to ease the shot comfortable to the main character and nature. Or maybe for that matter, a bedroom window shot where the room is quite dark and then the next shot would be lightened by the alarm going off.
• I would then have the shot continue in the room but we hear the alarm and shift to the light protruding from the phone and see the main character waking up. (a note to myself is to have a light in the room to illuminate the setting enough, but not obviously light is seen. I saw this was a mistake made in many pieces I saw this year)
• within this shot, we'd see him wake up and maybe we hear a whisper of a sin voice appear but make it not too loud. He would react in an annoyed but calm manner and immediately set to the task to find AirPods to drown out the noise. 
• we shift the shot to where they would be charging and see the charge cord is not connected to the block so his AirPods are dead. "Shit I don't need this again today...  no no no" see him rambling to go find earbuds. ripping open drawers and looking everywhere. "dammit I don't want to deal with them today" then he rationalized with himself, "ok ok I can do this..."
• he begins to start walking and going about his morning routine, but we will just see him go into another room and cut to the next shot. 
• walking out of his house is what I am picturing and he does something where he either drops something or scrapes himself (depends on the location we decide on and what will look like it will look better in the shot) then the voices would begin to critique him again.
• "Only an idiot would do that" "don't make us look so weak" "walk smarter" - I can work on these lines to work better
• he would then grab his head reacting and maybe even hit his head "shut up will you"
• he throws his stuff in his car and the door shuts
• next shot he is driving his car and they begin yelling at him again. we see him tense his fists around the steering wheel then slowly begin accelerating the gas. I am thinking rapid cuts from speed to face closeups
• we could then hear a message goes off that distracts him. He breaks the annoyed concentration and begins to slow down. He gets to lights or gets to his destination and reads the message from his best friend, "how are you feeling today?" he can then go "I'll text them back later"
• he gets to the gym and sees people around him, greed "look take their wallet, they aren't looking" Pride, "go deadlift to show you're better than everyone" he ignores them, then envy "don't let those guys look better than you"
• he continues to ignore and plugs his AirPods into the wall and allows for them to charge while he works out. "you are too weak." "you'll never be good enough." "you'll never be strong enough" etc. 
• he slams himself and goes back over to where he left his bag and grabs the AirPods from charging and puts everything else in his bag.
• he goes to drive home but stops at a park. He puts his AirPods in and decides to go for a run. Music begins playing and we hear voices fade and we can see his anger dissipate. he goes to sit down after a bit on a bench and the shot opens from a closeup up to a midshot where a third opens up. We see someone join him but he has his music in and doesn't hear. After a bit, we hear her voice fade into his ears and the music stops with him pulling out the AirPods. 
• "Hey I was trying to get your attention but I guess you couldn't hear me." He responds, "yeah sorry I had these going but I saw your message - sorry I forgot to respond, I got distracted" she would respond, "no worries, do you want to talk about it?" he goes "Uh yeah there's quite a bit going on but I am surviving. there's a lot going on in my head but its feels like there is no escape"
• he says there isn't something right and goes into that they're going through something very abnormal.
• could then proceed with them somehow taking the AirPods when he divulges his feelings and is distracted. sets up where the character isn't able to block out the voices without the music.

Then I am going to end it somehow where my character gets too overwhelmed and crashes his car. The female would get a notification that another subject died, "I had hope he would last longer"

This plan seems like it will work but I just need to location scout and still find my female character. I am looking for this person but I haven't found any subjects that would get the aura I want yet. 

music happenings

The next phase is to find music I can use to support my piece. I need music that is diegetic with the character and background music. https://tunetank.com/themes/  has a lot of resources for copyright free content and I plan on finding multiple soundtracks from it. On this website as well were options for sound effects and I feel I can refer back to this website in the future.

• https://tunetank.com/t/61hf/5688-time-to-breathe
• this is one of the songs I envisioned the main character to play to drown out on the run to which he gets interrupted
• https://tunetank.com/sound/101537-vibration-from-turbulence
  
• I can use this for the sound behind the car drives I am planning
• Music from Tunetank.com Finval - Stasis (Copyright Free Music) Download free: https://tunetank.com/t/61hf/3802-stasis
  
• this is a good atmosphere sound I could utilize if I need simple support with a mysterious atmosphere
• Music from Tunetank.com Rage Sound - The End Of Humanity (Copyright Free Music) Download free: https://tunetank.com/t/61hf/3832-the-end-of-humanity
  
• This song is good support for the ideas I have for the mental breakdown and deterioration and mental health

Finding music was needed for my piece and I hope to find other pieces later because I know I want audio support heavily on this piece. Meeting with my actor will be needed and we can location scout for effective film production. 

For my previous post on ideas of shots- car driving popped up quite a bit, so I need to either research sounds on characters driving at extremely fast speeds or figure out how I can produce that sound by my own means. 

The sound bridges with dialogue to the natural world will be very cool transitions if I can edit it properly. I need to work out who my best friend character could be to get the malicious chill I need for them to produce. Thankfully, my main character actor that I planned for happily accepted my offer to be in my short film. They were quite happy to be offered and ready to shoot whenever I get everything together. 

stay tuned...

Ideas Ideas Ideas

 I have a person who I think I want to make my character for the project. I would like to meet with him and see what he does normally day-to-day and if that can inspire settings. I wanna see if I can make a sorta shot list, so here we go:

• a waking upshot with aggression that he forgot to charge his AirPods and has to go through the day without them and cannot find any other earbuds
• With my shots, I am already envisioning close-up shots that are doing almost 360 moving upwards until the voices get too loud that we see a physical reaction. 
• gradually progression of mental wellbeing being documented
• prompted shots for the sins to have a voice come out to, for example:
• greed- take their wallet to a person walking in front 
• you should be ahead in your classes
• why aren't you doing enough
• wrath - don't let others walk into you, do something about it
• tell them what's really on your mind
• envy- don't go easy on them, take the win
• take everything for yourself
• pride- you shouldn't be talking to that low life
• don't waste your breath on that person
• a closeup transitioned to a very wide depth of field to where the voices are no longer heard and the character yelling at them echos 
• putting charged AirPods in a gym bag and going into his car
• speeding in the car when voices gradually begin
• a gym shot where the voices are pushing him harder and harder - he then remembers to get his AirPods
• talking with self in a medium shot why this is happening to him in a cool down
• heads home and parks and the voices start again so he decides to go for a run
• a running shot where the character puts AirPods in where the music drowns out the voice
• then would progress that the AirPods die and the friend character appears saying, "Hey I was trying to get your attention but I guess you couldn't hear me."
• they sit down and he proceeds to go on his mental list of how a lot is going on in his head and there's no escape
• he could divulge that there isn't something right and the character is going through something very abnormal.
• could then proceed with them somehow taking the AirPods when he divulges his feelings and is distracted
• sets up where the character isn't able to block out the voices without the music.
• the Airpod necessity drowns out and the character is just aggressive and upset why it doesn't stop
• "I can't live like this anymore"
• This is where the postmodern twist can occur
• The guy can be driven to the breaking point in which he drives his car until it crashes
• The best friend character can just get a notification that subject 10467 ended his life
• she could give a response, "awe I thought he would live a little longer than the last."

So, in making this idea/shot list my previous ideas didn't present as much as I originally intended. The more technical aspects are lacking and it seems I didn't really need them. I could see how I can still include them but it isn't necessary for the script. I want to keep the piece dark in the composition of lighting to get my darker themes emphasized. I do not want too much light and plan to have the majority of my scenes in the late afternoon to nighttime so there isn't too much exposure. 

stay tuned...

Delve a little deeper

 The real question in using my research would really be the choice between whether I would interpret the sins explicitly or implicitly. I think I also need to refine the way I want to interpret my short film. I know I want to express my genre with more psychology and have that postmodern twist. However, I do know there is absolutely no way I could express every single sin in an implicit way for it to come across and not be too over the top.  It would be cool if I could develop the short film idea into a psychological thriller. 

If I could form that best friend who is foreshadowed to be ruining the main character's life actually part of the thrill, maybe? I really like my idea and I want to do what is possible and not too much where I try to fit everything that it just doesn't work. Last year I made the mistake with my production and the choice to produce an opening that just had too much for what was needed. 

So let's see what I can utilize and what I can do:

First, I need to develop my plotline effectively and find my character. The script needs to be written so I need to start with drafts in dialogue writing. 

Second, the idea of my piece will follow a devil on the shoulder. An idea I just thought of could be to change the position of having two opposing forces against the main character and conform to one. The voices inside the head can all be that character and I could do an audio effect to change the voiceover with a voice modulator and at the end have it switch to the real voice as the same people are talking. For example, "It was me ..... all along" type of idea. 

Third, I know what kind of look I want with lighting composition but I need to develop what settings I will shoot. 

Continuing I know my piece will rely heavily on the audio effects that I want to produce. My piece most likely will have its intended effect if I can properly make the audio effects to make the atmosphere. 

This next week begins my production plans. If I can find my character - producing a storyline with dialogue I can imagine happening would be beneficial. I have been looking at people to possibly work with on my production for all of the weeks I have been planning. Maybe I can take a trial run with a possible subject and see where it goes then commit to it. 

My biggest anxiety is the commitment to an idea or subject and it fails to turn into what I envisioned. 

stay tuned...

Lets Research Sin

Starting off I am going to do what I said in my previous posts regarding research. I will do some base research on sins than in my next post, I will delve deeper into what could be beneficial and deeper meanings.  I will take what seems beneficial in information for my short films. 

What I read:

• The seven deadly sins can be thought of as dispositions toward sin and separation from God.
• This idea would help my devil on the shoulder kind of aspect I would like to represent
• evil entails some good state of affairs that morally outweighs it.
•  a theodicy, an account of why God chooses to permit evil in the world (and why he is morally justified in so choosing)—e.g., that it is a necessary consequence of sin
• response presupposes that humans are indeed free, and it fails to reckon with natural evil, except insofar as the latter is increased by human factors such as greed or thoughtlessness. 
• “They’re called ‘mortal’ or ‘deadly’ because they lead to the death of the soul,” says Richard G. Newhauser, an English professor at Arizona State University
• "Vainglory is where we seek human acclaim.” - This refers to the pride
• avarice or greed shows up on all of the lists of sins -- a desire for wealth but for honors [and] high positions
• Sadness is closely related to envy 
• this can delve into the difference between realism and reality because they are so closely correlated.
• two types: joy at another’s misfortune and [the other is] sorrow at the fortune of someone else
• Wrath:  The Catechism says that “If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin.”
• Early Christian theologians understood gluttony to include drinking too much alcohol and desiring too much fine food, in addition to overeating.
• an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires
• melancholy causes “slothfulness in fulfilling the commands.” 
• transgressions which are fatal to spiritual progress
•  Pride is also known as Vanity.
• Catholic Church differentiates between two different types of sin: venial sin (forgiven through a sacrament) and capital sin (meriting damnation without reconciliation).
• Each sin is a particular way of failing to love God with all one's resources and to love fellows as much as self. 
• Lust: Obsessive, unlawful depraved thought, or unnatural desire for sexual excitement, such as desiring sex with a person outside marriage or engaging in unnatural sexual appetites
• Lust: Greed for Sex, Attention
• Gluttony: Greed for Self-Indulgence
• Envy: Greed for Possessions, Personal Gain
• Sloth: Greed for Avoidance
• Pride: Greed for Greatness
• Wrath: Greed for Revenge 

• Lust means they are too lazy to love
• Gluttony means they are too lazy to consider others
• Sloth means they are too lazy to do anything
• Envy too lazy to think about anything but money and personal gain
• Wrath too lazy to consider the consequences of their vengeful actions
• Greed too lazy to think about anything other than money and power
• Pride too lazy to understand that there is more to life than money and power
•  sloth is plagiarism. "In this Internet culture, cut and paste is so easy," 

References
Little, B. (n.d.). The Seven Deadly Sins and Where They Came From - HISTORY. HISTORY. Retrieved February 26, 2022, from https://www.history.com/news/seven-deadly-sins-origins

religion. (n.d.). Encyclopædia Britannica; Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved February 26, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion

Seven Deadly Sins. (n.d.). Seven Deadly Sins. Retrieved February 26, 2022, from http://www.deadlysins.com

Seven Deadly Sins - New World Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Info: Main Page - New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 26, 2022, from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Seven_Deadly_Sins

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/12/elc-sins

In researching the seven deadly sins I was able to talk to coworkers around me and understand ideas and apply ideas presented. The way envy can be associated so closely with sadness was something that makes sense once I read the idea but I never formed that thought upon my own mind prior. Associations are quite important in understanding what the sins may mean and how this furthers my interpretations is very helpful. Just the idea of presenting similar ideas in different forms quite actually helped me. I even participated in a conversation on the idea of realism versus reality on the ideas I presented to them on my impression of envy as a relation to sadness. 

The next blog post most likely keeps the ideas I want to learn further in the introductions of sin representation. How I can even further these ideas will most likely be the interpretations I need to make. 

stay tuned...

Keep it going

 

We are going again...

• PARANOID - Award-Winning Psychological Horror Short Film 2021 - Mikael Roth Official
  
• The piece was shocking in the visuals displayed. However eye-shielding the scenes may require, the audio was quite amazingly created. The way the audio depicted the paranoia and how it compared to my idea was quite similar. Voices inside the woman's head became too overwhelming to the point we can see the feeling she is trying to transpire. I was not a fan of the composition of some of the shots.  The background grabbed my eye and the way the woman seemed too overexposed to the point distracted me from the point of the piece. Adding a visual effect over the piece could support and not dissipate from the feeling and communication attempting to be made. I enjoyed the audio usage made inside of the piece and will gather similar attempts in my own piece. There was even a voice-over to communicate the woman's thought which I could even do to make a narrow, but complex connection to the idea of the sin voiceovers to my characters' own voiceovers.  
• if the idea of the voiceover the sins controlling of my character are somewhat conflicting and create chaos with an addition of the character also communicating with voiceover. This can create a deeper meaning of the general insanity being produced. My idea can even develop to how the piece can strive to try to make my character into a devil with the sins, or devils on their shoulder, a simulated process at the end.
• that may have made no sense but it makes some sense to me and maybe I can refine it further to make sense. I just want to get my ideas out there and written and it can help me for future storyboarding. 

• Fear Filter - A Snapchat Horror Short
  
• To be scared of an idea I already had an idea of what it was is disappointing. I am glad that the piece was able to scare me. I am deciding whether the possibility I had both AirPods in played more of a factor or not. the audios of screaming were gripping and put me on edge. Stings playing in the background to make suspense were chosen quite well to build the atmosphere desired. I also enjoyed the beginning transition from outside to inside with a dialogue played to represent the female inside. Manipulation of lighting and the technical effects added quite a lot to the piece. I enjoyed the piece and how it was able to get me to jump. The composition of shots with subtle lighting and the end with the manipulation of shadow with the shadow monster was awesome. 

• JOLLY - Christmas Horror Short Film
  
• The plot of this story was not the best choice for the entirety. This piece did achieve its desired horror aspect and the Santa figure was quite creepy. Utilizing a dialogue with a character who doesn't have a mouth was done without any cringy outputs. I enjoyed the shots displayed in the piece quite immensely and they created the holiday time composition. How the production was able to create a character that isn't a real person develop the storyline without any actual mouth is done well. The voice was a good choice and the dialogue doesn't hold hesitation in any of the lines - sounded quite professionally done. 

From the first piece to the last piece - the featured pieces were quite different. I enjoyed the first one immensely due to how similar it was in the ideas I wished to present in my own piece. The 2nd and 3rd pieces composed shots so beautifully and I enjoyed watching them. Audio effects in all of the pieces, thankfully, didn't lack and draw attention away from their respected pieces. 

I wish to continue my blog by furthering my knowledge of the 7 deadly sins so I can plot more story ideas before furthering my research on the composition of psychological short films. 

 

stay tuned...