Progress(!) + Changes + Overcoming Obstacles

So on Tuesday (3/29) I was able to squeeze some filming in. We were originally going to shoot the picnic at Vista after school as well as take some Polaroids for the journal, but due to the terrible weather, we were not able to shoot that scene.  I didn't just want to shoot nothing however, since I knew this would put me even farther behind then I already am. So, I just made a few changes to what Mia's memory would be.

Alex & I at PeiWei

For the Polaroids and filming, I just decided to keep with the aspect of us eating together, mainly because we had already bought the food for the picnic. So, we started filming and taking pictures at PeiWei while it poured outside.

We also continued the filming outside into the rain and the car, trying to be as goofy as possible (which isn't too hard for us).

Alex & I in the car.

Within editing, I really liked the way the stop motion memories looked, they looked a little disjointed and fun, while still disoriented.

Since Alex had to leave shortly after we filmed, Summer and I went back to her house to get as many shots as we could at the moment, since I am not yet done with Mia's Journal. We hope to continue shooting today and might reshoot some of the images since I am constantly changing my mind on what I think is best.

The lighting with double sheets.

For instance, we shot Mia looking at a Polaroid of all three of us in PeiWei, but we also took one in the car and I'm starting to like that one better. Especially since the memory montage just looks a lot better and happier than the PeiWei montage, especially with coloring. So I might have to reshoot the images that the previous Polaroid was used in.

At first, the time we were filming was bringing too much light into her room, so I tried blocking the window with one of her scarves, but that still wasn't working. So I just ended up tatking off her curtains all together and placed a thicker, white sheet over the window and then replaced the curtains, to have double the blockage. This created the perfect lighting that I was looking for. I fell in love with it immediately, but when it started to get darker, it became harder to see, even when the curtain was removed. So, next time we have to start shooting a little earlier since the images that we shot without natural lighting, were not on par with the ones shot with. When we used her ceiling lamp, the shots became too yellow and too lit. With natural lighting, they were less saturated and darker, but brought in the perfect amount of lighting and shadows.

Still of Mia with natural lighting

Music! (Part 2)

I have some VERY, VERY exciting news to share with you today!! I reached out to the manger for Phantogram, the band who plays the song "Bill Murray,"  which is the song I was really hoping to use for my opening. The big news is that he not only responded, but gave me the OK to use to song. When I saw his email I was filled with happiness and just simply overwhelmed.
Check out our emails below!

Music??!!

Even since the announcement of the project I have been searching for the perfect song for my opening, which has been certainly hard. I have constantly listening to Spotify playlists nonstop just trying to at least get a feel for the opening song.

"Bill Murray" lyrics

For a while I was IN LOVE with "Graveyard" by Robert Schwartzman from Palo Alto and even attempted to contact the record company, but got no response whatsoever. So with a lot of heartbreak, I settled on finding another song. However, it did help set the tone on what type of song would be. I definitely wanted the song to have an instrumental part at the beginning and possibly some synth in it. I also know I definitely don't want the entire song to be instrumental however and I do want it to be an Indie or an Alternative song. I feel as if the genre helps represent the character. I also want the song to have lyrics that somewhat pertain to the issues within the film.

Right now I'm really feeling "Bill Murray" by Phantogram. I love the way it sounds and I feel like it fits my film perfectly.

I went on their website earlier and saw they linked their contact information. I will email them when I'm sure this is the song I want and hope for a response, but for now I'm still on the hunt for copyright-free music as a backup.

Mia's Journal + Changes

Unfortunately, I won't be able to film this week due to my own schedule as well as Summer and Alex's, but that doesn't mean I won't be doing anything at all! I've been working on Mia's journal for the opening scene. I was hoping to take new Polaroid pictures for it, which I did, but I might just need to use a few old ones. So that's definitely something to do and think about this week.

How I have my Polaroids organized.

For Mia's journal, since I'm modeling it after my own, I took a few items I collected out of my journal and am currently planning to use them within Mia's, as well as making and collecting a few more things to add.

Just a few things I've collected.

Right now I'm deciding between two journals I have, on which to use for Mia's. One is a white with golden polka-dots and "Write Your Story" written in cursive on the front, while the other is a plain black journal.  I feel like the white journal add a little personality, but I feel like the black journal would look better on screen since Summer's bed is all white. I feel as if the contrast of the two colors would be very nice.

I think I'm going to stick with the black journal. However, I did want some indication that this was her journal, or even a journal at all. Maybe I'll write "Mia's Journal" on it or something, but right now I'm just brainstorming. Maybe I'll use the other journal as a prop, to infer that she has more than this one journal and has a lot of thoughts that she does not share.

The 2 Journal Choices.

Also, after sleeping on my storyboard, both in the literal sense and not, I decided to change some things about it. Instead of her just flipping through the pages and looking at the photographs, I feel as if it would be more intimate for Mia to untape the Polaroids and remove them out of the frame. They would be seen again when from either a Medium or Long shot of when she's falling back on her bed or laying on her bed. They would be surrounding her body, scattered about her bed. Possibly, when she falls back on the bed, I would show them lifting and falling back down with the photos in focus and Mia's body not. I feel like that would look very artistic and I like that idea.

I also changed the idea that the background music would stop and there would be a shot of a record player with some pills, an ashtray, and a bottle, to show Mia is under the influence. I feel as if the scene would feel empty without background music, especially since it would be inferred that it's diegetic. I still want to show the record player spinning to show that the music playing is diegetic, as well as the influence items (pills, ashtray, bottle, etc.). I want the record player and the influence items to be in shallow focus with Mia's body not in focus, just like the Polaroid shot I mentioned before. I want to give the audience the 2+2 equation, but not the 4 when it comes to the influence items. I want to show smoke coming from ashtray as well as possibly a prescription pill bottle, with possibly one or two pills on the record itself.

Fun Times in the Making

This week I'm looking to film, hopefully. Summer is going away on Saturday and Alex's extended family has come to visit for Easter on Sunday. My work schedule is also pretty booked at the moment, but I am determined to make it work. My opening scene really require two filming locations: Mia's bedroom and Vista View Park. Majority of the scene will take place within Mia's bedroom and the memory will take place at Vista View.

A Picnic Under A Tree ;')

I chose Vista View Park as the first and only memory to be shown in the opening because it holds a lot of meaning to me. As well as the fact that it is a very visually beautiful place to shoot. The memory I had in mind was an outdoor picnic under a tree, a common activity for Summer, Alex, and I. I was hoping to illicit the same feeling of happiness and warmth I feel whenever I am with them.

As for Mia's room I chose to use Summer's actual bedroom because I like the way she has it staged. As well as how it fits her character, as it is very minimalistic, yet holds a lot of personality.

I added a few pictures of my storyboard. I apologize for the messy nature of it, but I am in no way Picasso. It's not 100% accurate for what's going on in my head, especially since my ideas change and grow everyday, but it's leading me in the right direction. I also know it's short, but majority of the shots will be of Mia's journal and I didn't want to draw every page. I do know how I want it though. More to come in my next posting.

Storyboard Part 1

Storyboard Part 2

Characters

I realized that I'm progressing the plot by simply using my friends, as they are now, as the characters. However, I do not want to continue doing this. My friends are separate people from their characters and I feel as if their character should texture to them, especially the main character.

First off is names. There are three characters, played by Summer, Alex, and I. Summer's character is really the one who needs the most character development and layers within her. While Alex and I's characters are still important and require traits and names, we are still background characters compared to Summer's character.

Summer's real name is Sukaina, but she goes by her middle name. I wanted to follow this process like she does because it shows the assimilation and fusion of her character into American and modern culture. Also, it symbolizes her having two different lives. With her family and her own culture she's Sukaina, but with her friend and herself she's Summer. I really enjoyed this idea of seperation, even if it's not extreme within Summer's life. Within her character, it would add onto her emotional and mental struggle with herself, her family, and her culture.

After researching Arabic and Pakistani names I came up with Malika, which means "queen" or "ruler" in Arabic. However, she will go by Mia to represent her desire to assimilate and just be normal.

As for Alex and I's characters I want to use names that have very positive definitions and connotations. For Alex I decided on Mateo, which means "gift of god." For myself I chose Ellie, which means "bright shining one."

Malika "Mia"

Ellie

Mia is a very artistic and friendly girl, but she tends to keep to herself a lot, the only exception being her two friends, Mateo and Ellie. She loves taking pictures and documenting her life through social media. She practices Islam, but is more modernized, while her family practices are still very tradition. Mia is also a closeted bisexual, despite it being against her religion. She also has depression, but it goes untreated, as she is too afraid to tell her family.







Ellie is the wild and spontaneous friend. She is always loud, but always loving. She is friendly to everyone, but has found her fit being with her two friends, Mia and Mateo. Ellie is also very artsy, but more through music. She and Mia have been friends for a little longer, recently adding Mateo into their tight knit group.

Mateo

Mateo is the sweet, funny boy who loves to make everyone laugh. He was placed in a class with Mia and Ellie and they quickly became great friends. Mateo is also the reckless one of the friend group, doing crazy things just to get a laugh out of his friends. He is typically the one who inspires them to go on random adventures all the time.

My Execution

Although I've explained the premise of my idea and the background of it, I haven't begun to speak about how I'm going to execute my idea. I have the idea within my head of how I want just about everything to look.

Example of a memory

I have this obsession with working with the saturation, coloring, and lighting of my films. Last year I made a film titled "A Life That Is Not Mine." I played around with the coloring and the saturation mainly. The film dealt with two realities, flashbacks and present time. Within the memories, the coloring was very cold and a lot of the saturation was taken out and within the present all the colors were a lot more warm and vibrant. I added a few examples of the contrast.

Example of present

In my scene I want to work with the same ideal of two realities, memories and the present. However, for my scene, since the majority of it will be in the present I do not want the two colors to be so contrasted. For the present I was thinking of working with very warm colors, but low lighting and some subtraction of saturation. Something like the stills I added from The Perks of Being A Wallflower and Palo Alto. It still feels warm and comfortable, yet dark. I feel as if making the scene cool and blue will make is feel isolated. I want the scene to illicit emotion and I don't think that cool colors can do that.

Example of my ideal lighting and coloring.

Example of ideal lighting and coloring

Within my opening I want to introduce my main character and allude to conflict. I wanted to use the main character's journal to introduce her character as well as to incorporate the credits. To do the credits I was hoping to use Polaroid pictures and write the credits like captions for the photographs. To introduce the main character I would do it through the pages of her journal and pictures within in. On the pages would be entries, doodles, sketches, letter, flowers, etc. taped into the journal, anything to really get across the artistic nature of my main character across while still alluding to the conflicts within her. I got this idea from my own journal in which I use as a journal and tape my own Polaroid pictures within.

Example of memory motion

When it comes down to the memories, I have a very specific look in mind. I want them to be very choppy, almost like a stop motion. I want them to look very artistic and psychedelic since I will be inferring that the main character is under the influence of many substances and emotions at the time. 

Recently, I took a burst of photos on my friend's phone and when you swiped through them they gave a artsy, intimate feel. There's enough connection to create an essence, but adds a little diversity and art towards a rather steady piece. I want the memories to have a lot of emotion towards them, therefore majority of them will be in point-of-view shots, in order to create connection between viewer and character.


The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Perf. Logan Lerman and Emma Watson. Roadshow, 2012. Film.
Palo Alto. Dir. Gia Coppola. Perf. Emma Roberts, Nat Wolff, James Franco. 2013. Film.