The internet aspect

 Hey blog, 

Let's keep going. 

Alright, so you read the premise of the film, "A young teen boy decides he will F$ck a monkey, and become famous on the internet."

You immediately assume the main themes of the film will surround the inhumanity of the act. Yet, it is NOT a movie about bestiality. We're in school god darn, let's keep it classy. 

The film would mostly surround our protagonist, who posts a video of him saying he wants to eff a monkey, and what the internet does with that. 

He becomes a micro celebrity in a niche of bullies, an incel that people can make fun of, without his being aware that he is being made fun of. 

He receives the attention that he sought from people his whole life. And people are laughing, just not with him. This film is about how this character becomes completely entranced with social media, and feels the need to share so much with it, that it becomes its sole source for validation and socialization. 

I took inspiration from both real life people and the film Spree. 

I already spoke about Chris Chan, so let's talk about Spree.

The poster of the film depicts a young guy, covered in blood, livestreaming himself and laughing. This is the absurdity we want to depict. 

The film shows the extremes people will go to to feel validated, even if it is from people online, and people who are seeing him in a negative light. 

The protagonist in this film is sort of a psychopath. That's not what our protagonist is. He is simply a young adult who gets lost in the attention he receives. 

We want to depict the social media aspect of the film by using tiktok and discord. Discord, is where he interacts with people more directly. It is commonly known to be an app for geeks to play videogames together, and for people to get together and chat(sometimes about odd things.)

Tiktok, is extremely popular these days. Everyday someone knew becomes popular there. The videos are short enough where they keep the attention of viewers, but long enough where people can develop themselves as characters and celebrities. 

Also-tiktok is brutal. 50% of the enjoyment of tiktok is reading comments. And people are brutal. 

Mise en Scene- Set

 Hey blog, 

Let's talk about something very near and dear to my heart. MISCE EN SCENE. 

At the beginning, I had a vision for his room. I envisioned it like a stereotypical lazy teenage boy room, with posters everywhere, and mostly trash. 

My ideal room would be inspired by Sid from Skins. 

Although he does not necessarily represent the character we're portraying, his room perfectly encapsulated a lazy and unkept teen boy.

However, after giving it extra thought, I want to do something very different with the bedroom. I want the walls to be white. And have very few decorations, to show his lack of care for the way he presents himself. I still want it to be messy, but I think a room with long white walls will provide a very cool way of showing the slow progression of the character. 

Almost like he just moved in and has not had the time to put things together, although he has probably been living there his whole life. 

Progressively, I want the room to get filled with monkey paraphernalia( I know I never thought I would ever be typing that either.)

The pictures would serve as a visual representation of the absurdity of our protagonists' situation. It would be funny, but ultimately very dark, and would represent how slowly this is becoming his life, and literally nothing else is on his mind. (Not the sex with the monkey itself, but the idea of effing a monkey. The attention he gets.)

However, an issue arises. 

Last year, I wanted my set to be fully white, a white void. This was not a succesfull idea, I did not have the funds to rent a room, and practically no one has a white room laying around. 

So I think our safest bet is to use Martina's brother's room. It is not perfectly white, but it is empty in a way, and the effect of the emptiness would still be prevalent. 

I do not have any pictures right now but will update this post once I get some. 

I also think I want to see Jack's room, and maybe some other friend's rooms to see if something else arises. 

Our Main Character

 
Hey lovely blog, 
Let me tell you what Martina, Clara and I have been brewing. 
We have an idea and we are pretty solid on it. We want to create a short on an involuntary celibate, or incel for short, a phenomenon that although has existed for long, has evolved due to the internet and the ability to find partners on it, and to market ourselves. 
Our idea would surround a man, who after experiencing a very harsh rejection from a woman, has a spontaneous idea to...um...mate with a monkey. 
I know it sounds crazy, but listen, it makes sense to us. 
After having the idea, he posts himself saying he will have sex with the monkey, he finds that his video has gone pretty viral, and the audience is encouraging him to commit the act of bestiality. He believes he is becoming some sort of idol for men who hate women, by introducing a new idea on how to experience sexual pleasure without having to interact with women, when in reality the people watching are people mocking his lack of tact, people interested to watch because of the shock. Some believe he is some sort of publicity stunt, some truly want to peer pressure him till he has sex with the monkey, and others are just watching, because that's simply what we do. 
We do not want our character to be a full villain. He is an extremely unlikable person, with poor social cues, and absolutely no idea how to talk to women, but he's ignorant and in the core, a man begging for help. His disconnectivity with women comes from a bad upbringing, and a lack of female role models. He is so seperated from women, that he does not acknowledge them as an equal to him, no necessarily inferior, just so different yhat it would be impossible for him to have a simple conversation. 
We have drafted a list of attributes our protagonist Diego would have. We based this on research we've done (which will be in the following blogs), and on who we generally believe Diego is, and what drove him to commit his actions. 

Diego 
-Puerto Rican/American
-Conventionally attractive
-Unhigienic and doesn’t care for his looks. Unkept
-greasy hair. Ugly fits. 
-hispanic- rejects his culture and is a bit racist. 
-Insecure 
-Avid discord/reddit/4chan user. 
-listens to old music
-never had a strong female or male role model, made him insecure in his masculinity, and have a bad relationship with women 
-disgustingly unkept room. Food everywhere. But there are still posters on the wall that reflects his change as a character, and his progress. 
-misguided sexual energy. 
-desensitized to pornography, but still addicted, so he has to reach obscure places. 
-Marihuana smoker.
-Never a partier.
-College aged. 
-He doesn’t necessarily hate women, but he’s been so removed from women, that he sees them as objects, and cannot understand or sympathize with them a lot.
-never had female friends
-includes a scene of him crying; he’s not genuinely sociopathic, but really feels remorse for his actions but can’t express it
-hashtag fuck the monkey

His physical looks are an imperative aspect of his character. We have already casted Jack Sussman to play him. The reason we chose him was because he is an excellent actor, who will be able to elevate our character. We knew we needed a proper actor to play our character, since it is an acting heavy film, and if we were to have used someone who would not be able to fully understand a character, and use that understanding in his acting, the film will not work. 

Additionally, he is pretty, he's a pretty boy. He's conventionally attractive, and we absolutely wanted that. We want our character to be attractive because it is the belief that he isn't what drives him away from women, and what he believes is the reason for his rejection. When in reality, it is not, he is the issue, because at the end of the day, looks are seldom the issue in a relationship, but a lot of men believe it is, which disconnects them from women even more. 

Schedule

 

Hey there blog, 

Alright, so Martina and I came up with our idea a bit ago, and decided right away we needed to aloud ourselves more time in production, than in pre-production. We do not want to run out of time, or having to compromise the quality of our scenes. This film will be too experimental and odd, we need to at least sell it well. Martina and I came up with a schedule that will allow us. This is not a final decision, specially because the actor playing our protagonist, Jack Sussman, is in another group and we will most likely have to work around his schedule. But it is a good idea of how our following weeks will look like. 

Week One

• Choose project genre
• Begin developing idea and plot
• Research genre and story ideas

Week Two

• Continue to research and develop the story
• Begin writing script
• Post to blog about planning (outlines, storyboards, moodboards, schedules, etc.)
• 4 blog postings

Week Three

• Finalize script
• Create a shot list/storyboard
• Create a filming schedule
• Create a social media account
• Continue to research and plan (digital and print components)
• 4 blog postings reflecting research and planning

Week Four

• Begin video production
• Document the production process (for the blog and social media page)
• Curate a posting schedule for the social media
• 4 postings to the blog - reflecting on research and planning, production process, filming, major changes to production and why

Week Five

• Continue production
• Begin planning ideas for the postcard
• Begin posting to social media
• 4 postings to blog reflecting production process, etc.

Week Six

• Continue production
• Continue planning of postcard
• Post to social media
• 4 blog postings reflecting on the entire process

Week Seven (Spring Break)

• Begin editing
• Work on print/digital components
• Post to social media
• 3 blog postings

Week Eight

• Begin research for the Critical Reflection
• Finish finalizing video
• Work on print/digital
• Post to social media
• 3 postings reflecting production process

Week Nine

• Finalize editing the video
• Finalize print component
• Post to social media
• Create Critical Reflection
• 3 blog postings

Week Ten

• Finalize Creative Reflection
• Upload all components to blog

So, let's begin

 Hello blog, 

It has been a bit. It has been I think, a whole year. I am now an A level student, and I absolutely love it so far. I find it so much more interesting and exciting, and I am ay lso very excited for this year's portfolio.

This year I will be working with Martina and Clara to make a short film.

Stay tuned and subscribe

Documentary CR

 In our piece "What do you Think of the Documentary?" My partner Martina Schmied and I attempted to portray each other's art work, and explore our differences in perception, self esteem, process, etc. 

Martina and I have both been making art for a decent amount of time now- her as a traditional artist, and I as a filmmaker. Upon being found with the obstacle of not feeling passionate about any documentary subjects, we decided to take a more personal route, one we knew we could be passionate over. 

We wanted to represent both each other as artists, and in the process, demonstrate our relationship as best friends. So we separated the documentary into two: Martina and Virginia. I would do a half on Martina, without her input, and Martina would do the same for me. We wanted both pieces to feel different, contrasting, yet lay harmoniously with each other, and create a cohesive piece. 

We took great inspiration from the documentary "American Promise." The people making the documentary had a very direct connection with the subjects of it, and the indirect, candid interviews reflected that. Thus, we decided it was imperative to incorporate candid interviews of both of us working on our art, that way we could get a more raw answer, that stemmed from the subconscius. Nonetheless, we still included other types of interviews. Our main interviews were filmed with the subject framed centrally, since it creates a deeper connection with the viewer and the  interviewee. Our secondary interviews, with people adding context on the subject, were filmed more traditionally, with the interviewee on a third, since we wanted to create a bit of a disconnect, and bring back the main focus to us two. Our b-roll consists of a mixture of candid b-roll, scripted b-roll, and extra pictures, videos, and paintings. I personally really liked the way "Abstract" included many types of b-roll like this, it made the film visually engaging, especially considering this is a film that talks about abstract ideas and feelings, rather than just events or facts. I really liked the end result, but I wished we had spent more time taking b-roll of me. I normally do not work on films often, so there was a limited amount of footage Martina could get of me working, and it was harder for us to figure out a way of scripting my b-roll, because my art does not result in a physical product like Martina's, but rather videos. We both want to record more b-roll with me, whether it be of me with projections on my face, or simply cinematic shots where we can play with lighting, scenery, and costuming.

The audience of our documentary is not very specific. I think people can watch and enjoy our documentaru. whether they are artists or not, because we discuss aspects that are general for most interests and hobbies. However, our idea of our target audience is teenangers of no specific gender, and especially teen artists. I think this piece could resonate with young artists such as ourselves, because it discusses ideas or self esteem, and the future that they maybe have struggled with as well. Unfortunately, the best reception has come from people that know us personally. Martina and I wish to expand on the documentary and add more context about us as friends, and us in general, because the documentary was lacking context on what specifically we do. 

Martina and I wanted to represent different types of artists. Not simply artists of different mediums, but different artists, and workers in general. Martina helps represents those who work out of the pleasure of doing so, and care little for the result, whereas I represented those who work and make art out of an internal drive, that almost prevents them from not doing so. We also really wanted to represent a geniune teenange friendship, one more positive than commonly associated with high school relationships in general. However, I think we did not completely achieve that, as we were missing a lot of context and shots of us interacting, and there is little where the friendship aspect could be observed, and was almost a distraction to the artistic part of the documentary. 

Nonetheless, Martina and I felt very emotional watching our documentary. This was truly a passion piece, not only because of the time and effort we put into it, but because of the experience that it was to create it. Our discussions on art and ourselves helped us understand each other in a much deeper and beautiful sense, and the finsihed product, we felt was a beautiful representation of each other. By changing up the end product a tad, we hope that audiences can feel the same connection. 

I hoped you liked our documentary, hated our documentary, was neutral towards it, or any feelings you may have had. Thank you for watching. 

Doc 1

My partner Martina and I began with completely different ideas.  We were planning on doing our documentary on imaginary friends, a topic neither of us really cared for, but thought could be interesting. After thinking about it, and talking to Ms. Stoklosa, we realized how little passion we both- very passionate people- held for this topic. Hence we changed our idea to fit us better. 

We had the luck on working on this together. Martina and I are best friends- we basically live with each other- so we thought we should use that for our advantage. Additionally, we are both artists of different mediums- Martina paints, and I make films. We wanted to make our documentary about that, but we thought of an interesting angle we could take. We would separate the doc into two distinct parts. The first part would be completely produced by me, and the second by Martina. Our subjects? Each other. We wanted to see how our art forms differed from each other, not only objectively, but personally. We both had an idea that the toll that our art took on us was different, and we wanted to explore on that. 

Filming was easy- yet exhausting. For about two weeks, I practically lived at Martina's house, and she in mine. Not only was I recording her interview and b-roll, but just her creating in general. I wanted as much candid footage as I could get in order to give the documentary a more personal feel. I was not sure until after I filmed, how I wanted to use my interviews- direct, indirect. But during editing, I saw that the indirect interviews added the person making the documentary into the story. 

To be frank, the process of filming and interviewing was not very tedious. It felt as though my friend and I were having deep conversations about each other and with each other, and the camera was just recording, hence why it felt so special. The original interview with Martina is so much longer, because we just kept conversing about art, and going deeper. We really bonded during this time. 

For b-roll, I knew I wanted to take advantage of Martina's beautiful art. I decided I wanted to make a "gallery" of sorts. Pin up her work(in her bathroom) and take diverse shots of just the art, and Martina interacting with it. It felt scripted, but it was my full intention. I also just took shots of her painting, not even speaking to her. I would just let her do her thing for a couple of hours and record it, that is where I got my best footage from. 

I edited my part of the documentary on premiere. I also put Martina and my part together, which was stressful because I had to take two disconnected pieces and make them linear. However, Martina's part, although different than mine, fit well with what I had. We both had very similar visions, as we had discussed before how we were putting this together.