Fonts

Kinda don't have anything to update on right now so I decided to do a little font research for funsies. 

When I was starting off, I imagined the font being very mechanical and robotic because of the subject matter kinda like this.

Archetype Van

Mokoto Glitch

I really like these fonts but now that we've shot a good 75% of the film, I feel like neither one really captures the aesthetic or concept. Also they feel a little more like cyberpunk than I was imagining. I decided to look for something a little more serious and ended up finding a font that I really loved called cinzel.

It's much more serious and looks like it would be used on a poster of that makes any sense. Of course, it's subject to change, but I would like to use this font either for promotional material on instagram, the post card, or the actual title drop in the film. Later next week, I'll work on making a graphic to post on insta with this font once I get a laptop. 

First Edit

Luckily, yesterday Megan was able to quickly edit all the footage that we have together to make a really rough first draft of the scenes we have so far. It's funny cause I remember a couple years ago seeing an interview with a director, I think it was Martin Scorsese, say that your first draft should make you want to vomit, and I think I finally get what he meant. It's kinda like when you have to act in something and then you have to edit it and it's like genuinely painful because just having to see yourself act makes you cringe sooo much. I'm not saying that its bad or anything, like I think so far for the first draft its pretty decent, but like to have to watch it, especially as the writer, was pretty hard. Like idk maybe I'm just super self-conscious. Anyway, I kinda jotted down some things that need improvement in editing while watching:

• - It feels a little boring. Going into it, I was aware that it would be quiet, but I feel like overall it feels a little boring. I think color grading will help a lot to make it visually more interesting, and sound will be super important. Also, we're still missing some voiceovers that'll help it feel more dynamic. 
• - Pacing. Generally, pacing feels okay. My biggest fear is that we're already at over four minutes and we still have a couple of scenes that we need to build that tension so I'm not really sure how we're gonna fit that 5 minute time without ruining the pacing.
• - Continuity. This was one of my biggest fears going into editing because I was very aware of this while creating the shot list and during shooting. Luckily, I do think that generally the continuity is good. There's one scene that looks a little bit awkward, but we also filmed it at different angle that hasn't been put in the edit yet so I'm hoping that that angle will make the shot look less awkward.

These are the three main things that I noticed while watching the line edit. Honestly, I'm kinda excited to work with the audio and color in the next two weeks to enhance everything. There's also some scenes that we're missing that are really crucial to practically all of these problems so I think we'll be fine. 

This World is Cruel and Unforgiving

My laptop is officially broken. No fix. It's so over. I've literally just sat around in bed twiddling my thumbs doing absolutely NOTHING these last two days cause I can't edit or anything. Luckily Megan has been able to work on a line edit and some social media posts but I'm lowkey pissed cause I feel like I'm dead weight. But anyway! We were able to get some social media posts done, so I feel like we're pretty on track for social media. 

So far, these past days, we've posted a quick meet the actors post, a first look with like 5 stills from filming, and a bloopers reel (we had to take a LOT of takes for certain scenes). We also posted the bloopers reel on stories to get a more interactive post.

Going forward, I think it would be good to do a countdown. Like maybe starting April 4th, we can post a still saying 5 more days, etc. Additionally, once I get a new laptop, I'll sort through the footage to see if I can find a good scene for a poster and possibly the print aspect. Additionally, I was thinking of maybe making a teaser closer to the deadline once the film is fully done (we're getting there). That's the plan social media-wise in the next week or so.

I forgot how to do an update

#tbh it's been a hot minute since I've done a production update on here and I don't remember what I'm supposed to say so I guess I'll just summarize. 

Picture this. It's 6:10 am on a Friday. Not just any Friday. But the first day of spring break. And your alarm goes off. Just a grating, ugly sound going off right next to your ear. So you drag yourself out of bed to get ready for a full day of filming. Now, for what it's worth, I usually really enjoy filming. It's so fun most of the time. But once it's gone over 7 hours, then it kinda starts to suck. But anyway back to the story. Megan picks me up at 6:45ish, I had already dropped off the equipment the day before so I was only bringing my mirror for one of the shots and some books (again for a shot). We pick up Mariano and then go to Publix to buy a plant and some breakfast (we just ended up buying a box of croissants). We get to Megan's house at 7 and immediately start working. Megan works on getting the neck contraption on Mariano while I set up the lighting and camera. Apparently the molding makeup thing is not strong enough to put a part of a Playstation on someone's neck, so we had to try other not very pretty methods but eventually we were able to figure it out. 

We shot for a couple hours, I filmed everything, Megan was boom operator. Megan's friend who played the engineer got there at like 10. We had a short lunch break. The room that we were filming in was soooo hot cause there was 3 lights, 4 people, and we had to close all the doors oh my god it was horrible.

 

We were done filming at around 6:30ish I think, full 12 hours. We shot a good 80% of what we need, we're just missing likr two scenes which we're planning to film on Monday since Megan is in Vegas right now. But yeah I think it went really well! I'm usually really scared when I have to shoot stuff cause cameras scare and confuse me, but I got the hang of this one pretty quick. There were a couple problems that happened during production but to be honest it went as smooth as production can go so that's great. 

Photo Dump

 Propspropsprops 

As I said in my previous blog posts (or maybe I didn't I dont remember), it's very hard to find colored contact lenses. Either we would find one, but it would be on a sketchy website and the possibility of the lens damaging our actors vision was very high, or we would find a safe one that would only sell a year supply of really expensive contacts. That sucked so we decided just to throw out the idea of contacts and instead make a neck robotic contraption thing. This was obviously really daunting because 1) it'll obviously be hard to make a pull off not looking stupid, and 2) how would we attach it to his neck. 

Inspo 😍😍

I started the process (my dad helped me too) with looking for just a bunch of wires. Apparently we have a bunch of old wires that don't work anymore laying around in my house. Which is good! Next we took apart our old Playstation. Yeah....it's okay though it didn't work anymore. Eventually we found this piece that looked really cool (I think it's part of the frame). We hot glued together the wires to the Playstation piece. We also guess the contraption to some foam merely to make it easier to attach to skin and blend together with makeup. Anyway I really liked how it turned out.

Final result!

I also ordered the voice recordering device online but I accidentally forgot to take a picture of it. I was actually catfished by Amazon because it looked a lot bigger in pictures than when I got it. Maybe I should have checked the size before ordering but to be honest I think it still works. And the actually recordings come out well na the audio quality is good.

Equipment

I went to Becon today to check out equipment since we're filming tomorrow. Unfortunately, Jim didn't have the camera I wanted (Sony a7iii), but he did have a Sony ZV-10 which I ended up checking out. I wasn't sure about the camera but now that I've got a chance to use it I feel better. It's also similar to the cameras I've worked with before so that makes me feel so much more comfortable. It comes with a 30 mm prime lens and a wider zoom lens which is great since the room is a bit small. 

Apart from the camera, I also checked out a boom mic/pole, RGB light kit, a dolly, tripod, headset, and uhhh I think that was it. Meaning that we're ready to film. Ah I'm nervous. 

The Last Supper

We're planning to start filming next week and I am nervous to say the least. Today, me and Megan got together to finalize any last things that we need. We went to Panera (my favorite place in the world btw), and we spent about two hours there planning things out. 

The first thing we did was finish the shot list, this isn't the first time we've worked together, and I feel like that time we learned the importance of actually planning our shots beforehand. So, we almost finalized the shot list aside from some scenes that we are missing in the script. It's pretty simple, I'm hoping that between now and when we film we come up with some more creative shots just so its not too visually boring. Also, I'll make a post on equipment later, but that's still a work in progress. After we finished the shot list, we brainstormed what other scene to put in between as rising action. To be honest, we really didn't come up with anything, but I usually get my ideas at 2 AM, so hopefully it'll come to me later, and that leaves tomorrow in class to finalize the shot list. 

After that, we texted our actor to see what clothes he owns. I wasn't a big fan of the result at first, but he has these black pants and black shirt that could be the introduction outfit. Then as time goes on, he starts to choose his own outfits. It adds a wide variety of outfits without having to buy new clothes, and also adds a bit of personality to him. Still not really sure what I want to do with his hair.

The last thing we did was plan out our next social media post. This one is just a quick meet the director's post where we introduce ourselves. The next one we were hoping to do was like a cool title post on After Effects, but then tragedy struck.

Yeah, that's right. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, they did. I got home, content from spending an afternoon on the best place on earth (have I mentioned how much I like Panera?), and I go to open my laptop. It doesn't turn on. Okay fine, maybe it's just out of battery. I charge it for an hour. It still doesn't turn on. I'm about one more inconvenience away from having a full on crashout. I really need my laptop to edit, not just for this project but in general for my other classes. 

:( 

But. I feel like overall, today was productive, we got a lot done and I feel slightly better for next week, but there's still a TON to do before we are ready to film. 

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY

From day one, my biggest worry was getting actors. Casting is what holds back production the most since you literally can't shoot something without actors unfortunately. This is exactly why we locked in and started contacting the drama club on the second day. We created a group chat with everyone who said were interested in auditioning. And everything was going well. On February 27, we sent out a text asking if everyone was fine with a Wednesday, March 5th audition date. 

Only four people responded. We decided to move back the date a little to Monday, March 10th. When we asked if anyone was available that day, one person responded. We asked again what day would be best for everyone and got no response, so we decided to just ask everyone to send video auditions with the pieces. We gave them over a week and got crickets. At this point, we're tired of begging them to for literally anything so we had to make changes. WHATEVER.

Mariano, a guy in our media class will play the main character. I don't know how good of an actor he is, but he said he has some experience and he's pretty much down to film whatever day which is great for us. For the engineer character, I am asking a girl in our TV class, and we'll see with what she responds. It kinda sucks, but at least we were able to find replacements. There's no big moment in terms of acting (no crying, or screaming, or anything), so I honestly think we'll be fine with this cast.

Print Portion

 Unfortunately, I am a band kid (could end the sentence here), and I wasn't able to be in class when we had the print component lesson because I have at MPA (we got straight superiors yay but that also means more rehearsals so that's less yay). Luckily, Megan sent me her notes from the lesson which is really helpful.

I actually had no idea prior to starting my portfolio that postcards were like a common practice at film festivals. I kinda understand why though, they're much more practical than a poster or a brochuere. Since I was largely unware of this practice, I decided to do some research into some old projects.

I really like this one that I found, the title of the film is Circus Monkey. I wasn't able to find the film itself since I think its been deleted or privated, but I really like the design of the postcard. Although I don't know how representative the postcard is to the  short film itself, but I like how cohesive thecolors and text is on it. Unlike,most postcards that I've seen, this one has a drawing on the front instead of a still from the production.

I'm not really sure what we're going to do as of now. We're going to start brainstorming for the print component once we film, since that'll give us more shots as ideas for the cover.

Thank you Interstellar (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

So, here's my full disclaimer that I am not a screenwriter and have no intention to ever be a screenwriter. But, someone's gotta write a script so I locked in today, put the Interstellar soundtrack on repeat, and started to write.

The basic structure of the script goes:
- Introduction of main character and situation (through voiceover), minor introduction of engineer character

- Introduction of routine of character and experiences, etc.

- First important encounter with engineer, still impersonal

- SOMETHING THAT I STILL HAVENT FIGURED OUT

- Discussion with engineer discussing humanity

- Realization (climax)

- "Death" and revelation

That's the main points of the plot. I had originally gotten rid of the implemented memories because I didn't love the direction is was taking the narrative in, but I decided to tweak it a little to keep it in because I feel like it adds in another layer of conflict. 

Collective Unconscious

Instead of implementing a specific person's memories, I thought it would be better if the researchers/scientists implement general "memories". I basically got this idea from psychologist Carl Jung, who believed that there is an unconscious part of the brain that is shared by all humans. This unconscious part holds universal shared human experiences that transcend cultures, like memories, symbols, and emotions that eventually shape human behavior. I like how this theory matches the idea that he won't be able to experience "humanity" without the addition of this collective unconscious to his database thing. This also introduces another conflict, which is the character being basically inserted a deeper idea of emotions without actually being able to experience them (this would lead to him becoming overwhelmed, a metaphorical crashout session but mechanical, and the final discussion with the engineer). In the script, I actually wrote that the audience will also be able to see these images (they come like dreams to him). which I'm excited about because it'll add visual contrast to the monotony of the room. I think it'll be cool if we shot those scenes similar to the style in The Tree of Life.

Still from The Tree of Life

So yeah, the script's not completely finished yet but I feel good about what we have for now. My main fear is that it'll be too boring, but there's honestly nothing else I can add sooo.

Script (halfway done)

THE DIVINE SYNTHETIC

Screenplay by

Daniela Saffon and Megan Kelly

INT -  Experiment Room

A woman sits in a messy room. She’s surrounded by drawings scattered across the walls. The room itself is dark, like no one has been there in a while. She holds a voice recording device in her hand. Takes a breath and presses play.

Fade to black

We open back up in the same room. This time, however, the room isn't dark or messy. A man, wearing white clothes that perfectly fit his body, faces his back to the camera, a woman tinkers with the back of his neck. The cold lights that shine on his body gives the impression of a sterilized hospital room. From the back, he resembles a human enough. The camera pans to reveal his face. His features all resemble those of humans apart from the metallic contraption protruding from his neck. 

THE SUBJECT (V.O.)

Day Seven. Symptoms are much the same. Yesterday, I received the second implant of memories, building a sort of psych archive in my mind bank, like a bed of human experiences.

The V.O. continues as the woman deftly works.

THE SUBJECT (V.O.)

I get the fragments mostly during my dormant phases. The closest I experience to what your kind call dreams. I do believe that the memory enhancements are speeding up the process.

EXT. PARK

Inserts of the scene he is explaining

THE SUBJECT (V.O. cont.)

This set came with images of two adults and a child. A family. Laughter echoed in the scene, and the sun shone on the horizon. 

We cut back to the room.

INT - EXPERIMENT ROOM

Now, the android is alone. He holds the recording device in his hand. He sighs and ends the recording. 

The android stands up and walks over to the nearby desk. A plant sits on the surface. The vibrant green pops out amongst the grays and whites and blacks. He goes over to water it.

FADE TO BLACK

We see the android go through his daily routine as a new voiceover starts. He watches movies, cares for the plant, cleans the room.

THE SUBJECT (V.O.)

Day 18. The artificial memories come more frequently now. I’ve been fed a myriad of human experiences by now. Food, childhood, traveling, isolation, learning, loss, routine…death. Abstract ideas to me that make up the everyday life of you. I’ve also begun to consume human art. From the classics to the modern age. It really is fascinating how you have been able to reflect ……

The android sits down, going into its dormant phase. 

EXT.

We see some more artificial memories, this time a montage of couples.

INT. EXPERIMENT ROOM

THE SUBJECT

The images come too quickly now. Everything that accompanies them is so…overwhelming. The sensations. It’s like nothing I ever thought I could experience.

ENGINEER

(while writing on notepad)

As you know, you're a first generation prototype. There's still a lot of kinks we have to work out. [BEAT] I can look into your [insert techy terminology that I don't know] to make sure everything is running smoothly. 

The engineer performs an operation similar to the last time they met. This time is different though. The andriod is more perceptive, watching her intently as she works.

ENGINEER 

(finishing)

Alright that should help with the overwhelming data. Let me know if anything else comes up.

BEAT

THE SUBJECT

(genuine)

Thank you

 Group Meeting

Last week we had group meetings which are always super, super fun.  Everyone's project is so interesting and I'm so excited to see how they turn out.

Mateo

Mateo's short film is called The Dump and its a comedy about a guy that desperately needs to take a dump. I love the idea, it sounds hilarious. Mateo's main obstacle is finding a good ending to the film. I personally think he should find a bathroom at a really unexpected place or situation, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

Vic

Vic is doing a documentary of communities that gives people community. I think this idea is interesting if done well. What Vic needs to done is figure out how to structure it, and leave aside personal preferences, stick with what's best for the production.

Manu

I'm pretty familiar with this project already since I've already talked about it with Nicole and Manu before. I LOVE the idea for this short film. It about two girls who develop a sort of romantic relationship by communicating on the walls of the bathroom stall, as one grapples with her sexuality. It reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books, This is How You Lose the Time War, similar concept just not set during a...time war. I'm honestly really worried for this film though because I have no idea how they're gonna pull it off. I don't recommend filming in school bathrooms, and I don't even know if its allowed. But I also feel like the idea doesn't work without stalls. I don't know. I'm excited to see how it turns out though.

ME

The critiques that I got were really helpful. First of all, I got to see how far everyone else is in the process which made me feel a little better. And secondly, I got to pitch my project for the first time, which was nerve-racking, but I feel like everyone understood the core of our concept which made me so relieved. The main thing that everyone mentioned is to make each scene interesting. Mateo said there should be a conflict in every scene. I definitely get what everyone was saying, and one of my biggest fears is making this concept too boring, but I'm honestly not sure how to overcome that obstacle. There's not a lot that can happen in a small room. Aside from psychological conflicts, but I feel like there's only so much we can do without starting to repeat stuff. Ughhh I guess I'll think on it.

 Short Update

Like I said before at some point on here, I'm currently competing at STN which is a media production competition. We competed in crazy 8 on Saturday, which I'm in news mag, specifically PSA, and I'm so happy with how it came out. Today, we had excellence night in which we basically submit like pre-made stuff. Our weekly show, Aftershock, won for the first time in a decade which is lowkey crazy. I'm not technically a part of Aftetshock, but a PSA that I worked on was used so I guess I'm like an honorary winner or something. Anyway what I'm getting at is that I'm really, really tired so this post will be short. 

When we were starting to develop the idea, we knew that we wanted that humanity aspect in the story. At first, we kinda thought maybe having the scientist become close to the main character but that's too cliche and doesn't really work because the scientist would remain pretty objective and removed from the situation. Then another idea we had was a maid, but every time I tried to think of how to include it, it just felt really stupid. So we talked to Stoklosa and she was like what about an engineer, and it makes so much sense. Like of course there would be an engineer for like bi weekly checks. But also, it's so perfect to add an aspect of intimacy. And we could do some really cool shots with this. Okay yeah that's all I've got. Sorry for the short post.