Casting

    Hello, and welcome to today's blog post regarding the casting of the characters in my production. I've squared up dates with my friends and have finally settled upon who will join me in creating this movie introduction. 

    There are three main roles that have to be played. Two of them are roles as the characters of the movie and the last one is the cameraman.

    To begin with, I'll get my role out of the way. I will be playing the doctor within the film. This is for a plethora of reasons. First, I own the outfit the doctor wears and am able to wear it to the production. Furthermore, I know hot most of the mice-en-scene elements are used, so if one of them is used in the final project I know how to operate it and make it look believable in the film. Moreover, he has less screen time than the protagonist. I can act somewhat decently, but I would most likely not be able to portray the feelings of the protagonist too well. I feel that me being the protagonist would be detrimental to the film, and the role should be left to somewhat else who can do justice to the character.

    This leads into the next actor. The person who will play the role of the protagonist is my friend Dillon Dreyfus, who currently goes to Western. He has taken several acting classes, as well as film production classes. He also creates some short films in his spare time, which have come out pretty well when considering that he has an extremely low budget. I know he's able to bring life to the character, and he looks somewhat like how I imagined my character. I can also supply him with a black jacket if he needs it, but he most likely owns most of the clothing worn by the character.

    Finally, I have chosen Sergio Hernandez, who goes to my school, to be the cameraman for my film. Honestly, he does not have too much experience with film-making, however I did work on a short film project with him in 6th grade that came out decent. He will probably learn how to operate the stabilizer quickly. Also he was one of the only ones not on vacation, which did play a large role in me selecting him. 

    So that's my cast for this project. I do have some back-up friends who can fill in if they don't make it, so I'm not worried if something happens and they can't come. Sergio and Dillon are good at being responsible, so I know we won't be wasting much time when it comes to filming. I especially have faith in Dillon after viewing his past short films. Filming starts really soon and I'm excited to see how it goes. 

    Thank you for reading and I'll see you all next time! Farewell!

Equipment

     Hello, and welcome to today's blog post regarding the equipment that will be used in the film. (This is not to be confused with mice-en-scene equipment, which is usually not used to create a film.) I decided to blog about this due to the rapidly approaching film date, which is next week.

    Initially, I believed that there would be a large amount of tools needed to film, however as I was ruling out options I was able to limit it to two things, as most of the other goals can be achieved without special equipment. These tools are my iPhone and the DJI Osmo Handheld Stabilizer.

    The most important filming tool is my iPhone, an iPhone 11 pro. Due to me not owning a camera, it's my best option. It also has great quality and a variety of features to toy with, so I'm not worried about the video being choppy. It also makes it simple to transfer the videos to my computer to edit, as I could just email myself the files and import them to my editing software.  I'm not completely knowledgeable with traditional cameras either, so I feel that the product might not end up the best it could be if I used a camera rather than my phone. On top of this, I have a backup plan in case the quality is not good enough, as I could use my Mom's phone, an iPhone 12, which has fantastic video quality.

Image of the iPhone 11 Pro

    The other important piece of filming equipment is the DJI Osmo Handheld Stabilizer. Due to the phone being my main way of recording, this stabilizer is necessary to make sure my camera is not too wobbly. Although appearing to be a normal stabilizer, it has many features that work together with the phone for a great product. If you install a certain application on your phone ,you can control everything from the stabilizer alone. This means you never have to lay a finger on the phone. With so much control over the camera, I'm able to create some unique shots while the camera still retains stability.

Image of the DJI Osmo Handheld Stabilizer

    

    Filming starts in only two days, so having these tools prepared is crucial. My phone is not an issue, but I made sure that the stabilizer is charging and at the ready for when I film. I've only used it once before and came up with several unique movements, so I'm excited to see the other ways I can play with different shots and angles. Farewell, and thank you for reading! I hope to see you all in tomorrow's blog post!

Character Backgrounds

     Hello! Today I am going to discuss the characters of my film introduction. There are only two main characters in the introduction of the film, but if  it were a full production there would be a larger cast. 

    The two main characters of my film are the protagonist and the doctor. The introduction won't completely delve into character, but I do want their mise-en-scene elements to play a large part within the film, with some highlights being the colors and the costume designs.

    The first character I want to go over is the doctor. Despite not playing a large role in the beginning in the introduction of the film, he would be a large part of the middle and end of the film, as he is the oncologist of the main character and will guide the protagonist through the treatment. He will nearly always be there for the protagonist and makes sure to support the protagonist when he sees that he's stressed or in need of emotional support. As a result, he would nearly always be happy, upbeat, and outgoing, with the main exception being when he diagnoses the main character with cancer, in which case he would be talking in a more melancholic voice. The odds are that he will most likely be played by me, as I own the clothing for the role. The clothing would look something like this:

    To contrast, the main character would be stressed the moment we see him, having a gray color associated with him. This is because grey is the color that is most associated with anxiety. (Not to be confused with black, which is usually a symbol of power) His character varies depending on the context of the scene. During flashbacks he seems like a jolly character, but normally he'll be extremely stressed, sometimes seeming like he's out of touch with reality. This is shown when the doctor calls for him. The main character will not hear his his name until the doctor has to say it progressively louder. During conversation he would occasionally just space out and whoever he's talking to would have to get his attention again. I imagine he'd look something like this: 

Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Wear-a-Black-Denim-Jacket

    As of the time I am writing this, spring break has just begun, which means the filming will start in only a few days. All of the clothing has been obtained, and we know how the characters will act throughout the introduction. I can't wait to start filming this, as I believe I am going to have a lot of fun editing many of the effects that will convey emotion within my project. (I'm especially excited to show off the music I produced, which I am somewhat proud of)

    Farewell, and thank you for reading! Make sure to look forward to tomorrow's blog post, which may or not contain the audio of my guitar cover of Zero Two's (Kirby) theme!

The Opening Credits

    Hello, today's post will be regarding the credits that will occur within the film introduction. 

    One part of the introduction that is usually not thought of when viewing a movie is the opening credits. The opening credits only show some of the people who took part in the creation of the film. This is not to be confused with the ending credits, where every person/company that worked on the movie is credited.

    The people that should be featured in the opening credits are the producer, director, writer, cinematographer, editor, and the major actors. In my scenario, the producer, director, writer, cinematographer, and editor would be the same person, but it would still be beneficial to include each credit separately, as that is how it is done in more professional movies. They should never be scrolling down in the beginning of a movie either.

    The credits can't just be added out of nowhere though, because then they would appear to be forced. My idea is to have the credits appear in the time between the flashbacks. It would allow the scene to keep flowing, and the credits would not impede upon the most important moments. 

    Moreover, the use of a specific font would greatly assist with setting the tone of the movie. As a result, I have decided to use the Rokkit Typeface font. (Shown below) It is a very normal font, with no extravagant features that are used to intrigue viewers. I chose this font because it is somewhat serious. Its normality represents how drama movies work. In pure drama movies there are rarely fictional events and climactic final battles. This font represents seriousness, which is usually the tone of a drama movie. One drama movie that uses this font in its poster is "Room" by Emma Donoghue. 

The website below shows other fonts used within movies with the genre of drama:

https://postergrind.com/top-7-fonts-used-in-drama-movie-posters/

    The opening credits are often not completely looked into, so putting some thought into it is most likely a good idea if I want my movie to look good and fit the genre that I want it to be in. That's everything regarding font and credits in my movie introduction, so make sure to come back next time when I discuss the final preparations before filming. Thank you for reading and farewell!

    

Storyboard

     Hey, this somewhat acts like a second update post but instead of just being general it will have a large focus on the storyboard, which I promised last time. Due to the aforementioned personal issue discussed in the latest post, and another issue involving me getting sick at the beginning of the week, I don't have a physical copy of the storyboard yet. I will post it next time, but I will detail the full story here. Before that, I do want to mention some issues with the initial story that I wanted to remedy here.

    I got rid of the man having flashbacks with his kids, and replaced it with flashbacks of him enjoying himself in several activities. This is for two main reasons. First, I took into consideration that my siblings would most likely not follow my directions, because they're 6 and 8 years old. Not only would they not listen, but the actor of the main character would most likely be one of my friends, and having them act as if they were family would be extremely weird. This also leads into my second reason. By not having kids, we can have a reason for the main character appearing young. Thinking back, it would have made no sense for someone who looks so young to have kids. As a result, I'm happy I waited on posting the storyboard, especially with issues as big as these. 

    Anyways, here's the full story including everything except for the types of shots and drawings:

    The screen starts off black for a few seconds, and the only things you can hear are the general noises of a hospital waiting room, (doors opening and closing, people talking, quiet machine noises, etc.) and the overarching sound of a heartbeat, going at normal speed. Eventually, the camera focuses on the protagonist, a fairly average young adult, who is looking down and appears very stressed. The heartbeat slowly starts speeding up and the diegetic sounds get quieter. Zero two's theme also starts playing at this point on acoustic guitar. (See Music Part 4 for more details on song)

    This is the start of the next phase. Eventually, flashbacks of the protagonist enjoying himself with his friends and family start to appear. When these flashbacks occur, the acoustic guitar switches to piano. This happens several times, and every time a flashback ends you get another view of the protagonist, appearing more stressed after every flashback During this entire process, the heartbeat sound is getting faster and louder, with the diegetic sounds slowly disappearing. 

    All the tension builds up until the camera focuses on an opening door and the music completely stops. Only diegetic sound and the heartbeat are heard. Emerging from the door is a doctor who looks at his clipboards, hesitates to speak for a second, and then says, "I'm sorry." The main character reluctantly asks why. The doctor then says, "you've been diagnosed with cancer." The heartbeat sound would then stop. A black screen would appear and the title of the movie would follow. Then, some dialogue would be heard, but how much depends on the time limit of the project.

One shot of the man would be something similar to this, but from a different angle

    Filming starts next week and should be finished in less than two weeks. Some of my friends confirmed already and are ready to begin whenever I call, so the basic preparations are complete.

    Once again, I apologize for the lack of a visual, but what happened two weeks ago has legitimately affected me every day since it happened. It will be in tomorrow's post, however that post won't focus on the storyboard.

    I hope you all enjoyed the story of my production! It's not too comfortable of a topic, but the goal is not to be comfortable. I want people to get a feel of what it's like to deal with a cancer diagnosis. Thank you for reading and farewell! I hope to see you all next time.

General Update

     Hello! I'm sorry to keep people waiting on the storyboard, however something personal came up and I was unable to complete the sketches. In compensation, I will talk about progress I made within several aspects of the project. 

    After deciding on the song for the movie introduction, (Zero-Two Kirby theme) the main goal became to learn how to play the song. I was able to obtain the chords for the song on the application known as Chordify, which contains the chords for a large variety of songs, getting updated daily. I've practiced and so far I'm doing decently well, with the main issue being my speed. The good thing is I don't have to improve too much on my speed, as I intend to have it go slow and increase until the end, so only part of the song will go fast. Next, I need to find the main melody of the song and then I'll be done with the music.

       Another thing that I have done is successfully scouted a location to film the introduction. Obviously a hospital would be impractical due to the amount of people that urgently need to be there. We would be negatively impacting them, and conversely, they might disrupt us in the middle of our recordings. Taking this into account, I decided that I should film in my aunt's house. This is because it has white walls, similar to most doctor's offices, and is not too far from my house, so I could easily being any equipment needed over there. By adding some mice-en-scene elements, I could make the house appear very similar to a medical facility. As a result, I will film in my aunt's house.

    Furthermore, I have obtained the clothing and props for the movie introduction. I won't elaborate too much, as these would belong in my mice-en-scene and character design posts, but I do want to include a brief summary regarding them. All of the props are authentic and mine, so I can do whatever I wish with them. Continuing, I am allowed to use my dad's medical attire, which also really helps convey that the movie is taking place in a medical setting.

    

    I greatly apologize for not having the storyboard, but I was not counting on something so important happening out of nowhere. Thinking positively, I suppose I did get a taste of reality, and in the future I can't count count on getting things done on the day it's due. Expect to see future posts put out earlier in the weeks to come. Farewell, and I hope to see you next time, where I GUARANTEE that the storyboard will be posted and discussed.

The Creative Critical Reflection

     On Friday, we went over a new lesson in class. This lesson was on the creative critical reflection, the final portion of the portfolio project. I won't be able to answer any questions today, but I learned what I need to think about whenI answer these questions. (CCR = creative critical reflection)

    Before answering any of the questions, I need to reflect on my production. I would have to think about what I did well, but also what i feel was terrible, and would redo if given the time. After taking this into consideration I need to think about how I will create the CCR. It needs to be creative and there has to be two parts, which cannot use the same idea. Together, the CCR should be maximum 10 minutes long, with 7 minutes being ideal. I'm pretty sure one of them will be a presentation with a voiceover, as I'm somewhat good with creating presentations. I'm currently not sure about the other, but I'm leaning towards something like a director commentary.

    There are four main questions. I will now talk about the basic knowledge I require for answering them.

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

       The first thing I would need to do is discuss the conventions of my genre, which in this case is drama. After discussing this, I would need to discuss if I followed the conventions or not and why. It should end with talk about representation of groups, events, etc. For example, representing a certain group incorrectly could cause that group to believe the production was meant to discriminate them, thus causing them to not watch that movie.

• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

        For this question, the best start would be discussing the specific target audience of the film and how I found it. After that, I should discuss how/why the decisions I made when producing the film engage the target audience. Furthermore, I would need to discuss how my project would be distributed to best suit the target audience. On top of this, I need to take into account that I am an amateur filmmaker. As a result, I can't just release my film on a streaming service or on the big screens.

• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

        This question mostly serves as an overall reflection. I would need to reflect on every part of the project, focusing on things such as struggles and solutions to those struggles, especially big changes that I had to create in the middle of the production. I should offer specific details towards how I came up with the story. (Such as the inspiration) Finally, I should compare my knowledge from the beginning of the production to the end. Essentially, I need to show how i've grown throughout the project. I can even mention how knowledge from past projects within the class assist me with developing this one.

• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

          I believe this last question is the simplest, as it is mainly discussing how technological resources I used within the project were used to assist me with creating the project. This would mean discussing the technologies I used (such as Blogger) and the problems that were fixed or created because of them. Another thing to discuss is if I had to learn any new technologies when putting together the project.

         There is also the final statement, In the final statement, I need to talk about everything I learned from the project. This would also involve discussing errors I made during the project and how I could remedy them. Near the end, I should give a closing synopsis on what I would improve on if given extra time.

         Finally, there are some things that should be incorporated throughout the entire project. It needs to be creative, so I should try to make everything personal, somewhat like how I've been treating the blog. I should also cite sources at every opportunity, as it not only shows that I did my research, but also shows that I'm not pulling facts out of absolutely nowhere. A script would also be beneficial when I record myself, as it just makes the entire video seems more professional, especially when I reference sources. Likewise there are some things that should never be included. The camera should not focus on a talking head too long, as it is incredibly boring and drastically decreases viewer engagement. The responses should not be boring as that goes against creativity. Finally, I should not wing anything. It never ends well and only hurts me in the end.

    With this knowledge, answering the questions should be significantly easier. Following the steps I discussed, I believe I am able to get a high score on the CCR, or at least pass. (I', still hoping for an A though)

    Make sure to stay tuned, as tomorrow's post will include the most up to date storyboard and go into depth of what I'm trying to accomplish with the introduction. Farewell, and I'll see you all next time!