Let's Talk Characters. PP#8

 

This is simply a breakdown of who the characters are, what they symbolize, etc. 

Steve (man)

Steve is an ass. He is both the archetype of a sexist business man, and a monster. Steve is married to Maria, a marriage he soon became bored of, mostly sexually, both also emotionally. To Steve, Maria is a psycho. She is dramatic, and she over reacts to every little thing he does, even though every time it is fully excused. Steve blames her for his misery. He never wanted kids, or a marriage, or a stable life like he has. Steve is a frat boy stuck in the body of a man, a man who chose his life, a man who escapes, a coward. Steve has hurt many people, mostly women. He has manipulated them for money, for sex, for validation. He is not a sociopath, he is just a narcissist who is blind to his errors and the effect he has on people. 

Steve is also a pervert. I don't want to make it clear on the film, I want it to be inferred, but Steve molested Dainty when she was a child and he was his babysitter. He also feels no remorse as he sees her as a child who obviously cannot feel any type of trauma. This is the worst thing he has done. 

I want to make it clear again. Steve is not a sociopath. The film would be obsolete if he was one. He is just highly narcissistic and manipulative, he is able to manipulate his mind into not feeling remorse, and into making him the victim, especially women. 

Maria

Steve's psycho wife who is not psycho at all. She married him when she was young: a handsome, rich businessman who promised her the world. Named after the Virgin Mary, or la Virgen Maria as she is called in spanish, she represents "the wife". That who is not allowed to enjoy sex. That who must be the caretaker, who must put in the work during birth in a stable, while everybody comes to bother her and give the boy gifts, a he is His son. That who must not complain. 

Maria wanted her life. She was under the impression that Steve wanted it too. 

Dainty

The most important character. Named after Dante, as she is his guide during this film, Maria was the one who was hurt the worse. 

She was molested young by Steve. The details of this do not matter, I don't want to make this film shocking or disturbing in that sense, it is not even going to be mentioned, simply implied. The audience is allowed to make their own interpretation of what happened to her, she is the most vague character. 

She mentions Steve stole from her. He immediately assumes its money, but what she means is that he stole her innocence and ability to live a normal life. 

She dresses in those clothes as a coping mechanism. Steve assumes she was not affected as she was so young, but she coped by staying young forever.

Dainty is cynical. This attracted Steve to her, he likes women who are different, except Dainty was not a woman, she was just a child, a sassy child. 

Dainty will be what hits Steve the hardest.

SCRIPT!!! PP#7

 

This is our first draft of a script. 

STEVE SCRIPT

A break down of our decisions-

The credits are black over white as this represents heaven. Last names are upside down, a visual representation of heaven and hell. 

The white room is a void. It tells us nothing. It is neither good nor bad. 

The characters behaviors, that of accepting whatever its surroundings present them with, add onto the disturbance and allows the audience to focus on the dilemma. Also it would allow us to build up a contrast and an ascending tension, as the man realizes just how bad Steve is and the situation he's in. The film would end with Steve(man) having a breakdown as he realizes what he did and his situation. 

Dainty, and all of the characters pop up randomly. She kind of just appears. Again, this is to add to the confusion and the fact that nothing has an explanation, it just happens, as this is not real life. 

Dainty's name represents Dante, as she is going to be the main guide for Steve, as she was hurt the worst by him. 

I took inspiration for the title from the shot "FLEABAG". News-flash, I LOVE THIS SHOW. I want the film to be quiet, to not be chaotic, so I like the sudden contrast between silence and loud noise. 

I picked black for the background as it represents hell. 

Maria's name represents The Virgin Mary, and the representation of women in the bible. To quote Laura Dern in "Marriage Story", "She's a virgin who gives birth." I will expand more on this on my character blog. 

The room slowly becomes filled with "bits" of Steve, pictures on the wall, and the room is no longer just white. 

The scene ends with the man being a douchebag. He is undermining their issues. 

 

Our Inspiration. PP#6

 It is important when writing and developing a good film, to not go in blind, to watch some examples. 

Here are some films that encompass what we want from our opening:

MOTHER

Mother by Darren Aronofksy, circles around a couple living in a desolate house. The film takes the wife through anxiety- filled moments that will make the audience want to turn the film off out of frustration. This film is not only disturbing and overwhelming, but also makes great criticism about the patriarchal position of women in the household, and the image of women in religion. I personally like how the religious symbolism is hidden strategically, yet is very obvious to all. I also like the overall confusion of the film. 

 CIRCLE

A group of people have to decide who dies. This film was brought to my attention by Nicole. It encompasses perfectly what we want to portray. Not only is it set in one room, like how we want to do it, but also it is about a group of people trapped in a room, who have to ponder on their actions to decide their faith. It is also a representation of purgatory. 

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER

One of my favorites of all times. It circles around a surgeon who's children begin getting ill after he meets with a young boy.  This movie has an insane amount of religious symbolism. Aditionally, in this movie a father has to make a decision- which one of his family members deserves to die. But my favorite part about this and all of Lanthimos' movies is the unacknowledged absurdity of the situation. We want our character to not acknowledge in fear or distrust what he is being put through, just blindly follow. This would add to the eeriness of the film, and would help make our protagonist more of a blank slate. 

THE GOOD PLACE

A show where heaven and hell are depicted as literal good and bad places. This show is very intricate and hard to take apart. Mostly what we want to take from this show is the white room used to depict the void. Where you are stuck, not good nor bad, just nothing. 

The Genre Horror PP#5

"Psychological horror movies and TV shows are an assault on our hearts and minds."

-Jason Hellerman. 

"Psychological horror ...  explores emotional and psychological vulnerabilities over primal survival fears."- Dr. Glenn D. Walters

Psychological horror is a sub-genre oh horror that means to delve into the psyche of a character, or characters, or make some sort of commentary about society. They can be described as  disturbing, overwhelming, confusing, and off-putting. They can be very surrealist, such as "The Killing of a Sacred Deer", by Yorgos Lanthimos, and "I'm thinking of Ending Things", by Charlie Kauffman. 

Psychological thrillers are different, as they rely on logic to solve whatever mystery is happening. They can also be very straight to the point, and follow the pattern of classical horror movies, such as "The Visit", by M. Night Shyamalan, and most of his films in general, as it is generally reveal the answer to a mystery by the last few scenes. You may also think of movies without any paranormal activity or horror really, like "Zodiac", by David Fincher. In conclusion, "psychological horror.. has all the gore and violence with complex explanations and paranoia. " (Jason Hellerman). 

In my personal film viewing experience, I've noticed that psychological thrillers tend to rely less on gore and scary tropes, hence why I chose it. 

In my following blogs, I will touch more on how my film would follow the tropes of these films. These being: 

Story tropes- 

The classic- Everything is fine until something jumps from "a bush"

The Full Version- Nothing is happening which makes it more eerie and making the audience expect a grand reveal. 

The Empty Version- Nothing is happening until a big reveal. 

Sources

https://nofilmschool.com/psychological-horror-movies-and-tv-shows-genre

https://www.filminquiry.com/beginners-guide-psychological-horror/

We're Thinking of Steve. PP#4

We spent all of class today thinking of ideas. Digging back to old ones, looking up prompts to trigger my brain into coming up with something, anything. I was not providing the services I promised. I was not writing. We thought and thought but every time someone would mention an idea: "we can make an intro that surrounds around a politician, and how it affects their inner psyche, and-" 

Ok, awesome. Who is going to play that politician? I sure am not, I have zits on my forehead, and four different hair colors. Whose office are we using? Your dad's? oh yeah, and let me not forget, what do I know about being a politician? I can shamefully say I don't even know what is happening within my state, much less other countries. I'm not even old enough to vote. Oh, and, obviously, I'm not old enough to understand how and why adults do the crap they do. So we scrapped that. 

I was thinking back to the one time my boyfriend told me "Virginia can you write a film about a guy with no face please, I want to do visual effects." I retook this idea. 

STEVE

Int- White Room. Day

A boy of ambiguous age sits in a white room. He looks straight at the camera. He breathes heavily, but looks completely numb, as if he has just woke up from surgery. He knows not what is happening, or where he is, or who he is, but he seems relaxed, in context. His eyes glisten as the bright white of the room reflects off them. He looks in front of him and sees a door. 

Our story would surround around a guy who is in a white room. He gets approached by people, who look very weak, very harmed. All of these people will come up to our protagonist and ask him to find the perpetrator of these actions, a man named Steve. Our protagonist has to talk to many people, and think within himself, where he can find Steve so he can make him pay. At the beginning he does not think Steve is as awful as people assume, but eventually seeing the effect of Steve's actions on people, make him realize that Steve is a bad person, who selfishly harms others without even realizing it. It is not a physical harm, as the characters defects and bruises are just representations of this harm. As our protagonist faces the last door where reading Steve, he opens it, and reads a sign that says "Welcome to Hell Steve, thank you for making this decision for us." It is revealed that our protagonist is Steve, and he was in a purgatory-like state, deciding whether he should go to heaven or hell, by seeing the effects of his own actions through clean eyes. 

We are not sure if this is the story we are sticking with. I want to be able to add a bit more of a horror twist to it, make it more of a thriller, but I also think the story stands on it's own as it is, so we might even consider shifting our genre fully.

 

So, Horror. PP#3

 So, horror. We think of serial killers, we think of ghosts. Of a creepy dude, with creepy boots, standing at a creepy door, oh this sure is creepy. You may be wondering if I'm an idiot. A pretentious idiot for that. That is what I think when people tell me they have a passion for horror, because the moment they tell me about their endeavors in the film industry, it always includes a creepy guy doing creepy things that have been done before by other creepy guys. How are we going to differentiate ourselves from them? Do we even have to? As long as Halloween and first dates keep existing, there will always be a demand for bad horror films. Films that are repetitive. Films that have no depth, just jump scares. Films with a happy ending. Films where the least expected is actually true, but it takes one extra brain cell to see that it was expected. Should we stick to this? No. There is another way. 

My best friend, and film partner Lauren and I have always shared a passion for psychological horror. We love Darren Aronofsky's filmography so much: the obsessed artist in the Black Swan, the fast paced cuts  in Requiem For a Dream, and the overwhelming sense of Mother, inspired us when we opened an email that read, "Your skills USA genre is horror." We were lost, having made only one horror film, Toby Has Friends. So we decided to stick to this, and take the route of psychological horror, a character's personal demise, as she struggles to achieve the perfection she feels is necessary to be enough. I based a lot of it in how I deal with failure, yet in a much more exaggerated way. We went absolutely crazy with the cinematography. We wanted to recreate, in our way, Aronofsky's hip-hop montages from Requiem. Overall, our purpose with both Toby and this was to confuse and overwhelm our audience. I Toby everything seems fine, except there is something off, the way the kids act, the way the shots are so tight on them, the way they walk with one another. With this one, we wanted to show her descent, we wanted to focus on little details that only she would focus on. We wanted to overwhelm. 

That is my goal with this. I hope to set up a scenario that seems the slightest bit off. I want to overwhelm my audience with the cinematography and dialogue and acting, and I want my audience to want to look away, yet not know why. My group loves this. 

Here is my film I made named Critique. We won first place for Skills USA, and we are currently on the way of submitting this to the SunCoast Emmys and All American Film Festival. 

https://youtu.be/JvKTQR2T2EY

Choosing a Genre. PP#2

 My Team and I dwelled on what genre we were gonna do. I was initially thinking maybe a personal drama, as it is easiest to talk about what you know. According to Filmsite, drama has the most subgenres within, and includes a broad spectrum of film. Really anything that focuses on a struggle between men and men, men and nature, etc is considered a drama, as long as the situations, characters, and setting, emulate real life. They are the easiest for people to relate to, and hence, the easiest to create an emotional appeal with, as these are real life situations. 

I started off by thinking of my mother. My mother passed away when I was 10. Everytime I think of her my memories are so nebulous that it's as though I am looking at old pictures of someone I never met. Yet those memories are there. They sure are there. I want to visualize them. I wanted to, for the first time, make something about myself, about my mother, so I could get these images out, so I could see her again, but I got stuck. 

I hate drama. Not watching it, (and I surely do not hate creating it), but making it. I never know where to start. I never know how to make a film raw. How to make it interesting for myself. I think I am too young, too naive, to be writing about real life like I know something. I think it is selfish of me to be trying to do that at such an early stage. I always watch these dramas, these dialogue heavy films, and wish I could write like that. But I can’t. I watch any film by Aaron Sorkin and I think it’s a masterpiece, but at the same time I don’t understand it. I don’t get money. I don’t get what it's like to understand interpersonal relationships as deeply as Kauffman does. I am an emotional moron. I don’t want to write what I know, because what the heck do I know? All of what I believe in right now, no matter how smart I am, are from the perspective of a high schooler, and I have had enough talks with adults to know that they did not know anything either. I will write what I know, one day. But right now what I know changes too often. I’m not saying I will never write about my mother, I’m just going to do her the honor of holding off until I learn and know more. So for now, I’m going to write what I like. 

I like horror. 

https://www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html

The Beginning of my Portfolio Project. PP#1

 As part of my AICE exam for the course AICE Media Studies, we are required to create a two minute film opening where we demonstrate a clear understanding of camera, shot, editing, audio, color, techniques, as well as a clear comprehension of our chosen genre and representation.

I have been waiting for this project since last year, since I had watched all of my older friends complete theirs. This was before I had ever made any sort of short film, so the concept of making a film opening seemed really interesting. Coming back from my trip to Long Beach to compete in filmmaking, I am even more excited, since I am feeling inspired and confident in my skills, as well as my peers. I hope with this project I can truly develop a character further, or at least set it up for that development. Having only made 2-5 minute films, I never truly had that opportunity, and I seem to take full advantage of it. I am also hoping my opening will build suspense, and will present the audience with confusion, and the yearning to see more. 

I am working with Nicole and Kai. I have never worked with Kai, but so far he seems really smart and creative. I have had my fair share of working with Nicole on films. She was in one of my first shorts called “Toby Has Friends”, which has won us a scholarship. I simply adore working with Nicole, we understand each other very well, and we respect each other. She understands my creative process and only intrudes when she knows I need help. She knows when to leave me alone to my thoughts and my writing, and she knows what I want from a character. 

Here is the film Nicole, a couple other people, and I made, “Toby Has Friends.”

"Toby Has Friends"

Marketing Project #2

 The process in making this project was very interesting. We were completely lost at the beginning seeing as none of us knew anything about metal and since the music has a very specific aesthetic and vibe we did not know how to be original when making this. We also struggled in the beginning because the lyrics of the song were simple and vague, not allowing us to make any creative decisions. Additionally, for our music video it was stressful at the beginning since all of the music videos we watched as examples, were very reliant on the set they filmed and we knew we did not have the liberty to make as many creative mise-en-scene decisions. Finally, it was hard in the beginning to make this a band that would cater to the current youth since, nowadays, teens seldom listen to metal. However, we did in fact persevere. 

We started off with our research and noticed the pattern that most metal music was either made for shock value, or included very dark topics. Our song treated depression, saying it will make you “Blind”. We decided early on to cater to more taboo problems teenangers deal with, as we thought depression would be hard to convey and we wanted to be more original. We landed on the drug problem within kids as we thought it was not discussed enough, especially when it comes to drugs like adderall or ritalin, and when it comes to suburban kids, as most correlate drugs to lower income. Additionally, we focused on the stress that school can bring and the negative effects it has on teens. 

For our marketing my colleague Ben decided we should go for a casual look. They would use social media as promotion, yet they would be very mysterious and post little, in order to keep the audience's intrigue. We used Ben’s friends and pictures of them as the basis for our social media, as the pictures they had fit the look we wanted, of a couple of high school friends making music for fun rather than being owned by a company, although they are signed to a label. This look, we noticed, is nowadays more appreciated by teenangers as they like seeing that honesty and probably like seeing themselves reflected in the media they consume. We also decided later on that it would not make sense for a band so small and so amateur to be having huge tours, so we stuck to the small gigs in pubs, as it is something seen a lot with small bands, especially rock-punk-metal bands. 

Our art was made by Sofia. We struggled a lot trying to figure out a specific style for them and their first album, which we also decided would follow a storyline of a young boy’s descent from drugs. We took inspiration from bands like My Chemical Romance, and we thought it would fit our specific song. The art is both very messy, but very minimalistic. This sort of art style is seen a lot nowadays, and we though it perfectly encapsulated the meaning of this song. Sofia made the art in Photoshop. 

Our music video was mostly made by me. I wrote, filmed and edited it. I decided I would play with lighting a lot, since  we wanted to show the clear contrast between the first, second, and third parts of the video. The first one has cold lighting, with blue tones. It feels distant and anxious. The second part has high- key lighting, with high saturation, showing the euphoric side effects of the drugs. Finally, the last part is very warm, showing the stress and physical toll the drugs and the addiction has had on him. We also used a lot of camera techniques, such as changing the shutter speed to use more frames in certain parts, and replicate the effects of the drugs. Finally, I was very keen on editing to the beet of the song, as it flows better, and tells the story both visually and audibly. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this project. As someone who makes videos weekly, I rarely think of the other aspects of making a production, and this has really shown me that it is a specific process that takes effort and focus. I think this will help me with my portfolio project, as now I have become much more aware of target audiences. Normally I would make whatever I wanted and made it look however I wanted (which isn’t necessarily bad), but technically speaking, it is better I become better accustomed with genre and audiences, as it will better the quality of all of my work, and help me grow as an artist. 

Here are the difference in light between sections of the MV.