Second day of filming...

    Our second day of filming didn’t go so smoothly… Lighting is NOT our friend. We were filming the gun scene today, which meant we needed to somehow figure out a way to get the lighting work to make the background dark but the subjects (Jessica and the doll) bright. We decided to shoot in my dads office which had neutral/dark tones as the color scheme, which was much better for filming this particular scene than it would be in my room (which had a bright color scheme). We put black garbage bags over the window of the office, which made the room almost pitch black if the door closed and no other light was turned on. However when we added our strategically placed lamps and flashlights and had Jessica stand in the position in which we wanted her to, we could still see the background no matter what we tried. After much frustration from trying everything we could to make the background dark on my DSLR, we decided to use filmic pro on my iPhone7 (which helped our problem immensely, yet didn’t solve it). Then Daniel, the artistic mastermind, had the idea of putting black garbage bags on and hanging from the wall. Once we found enough tape, put them all up, and tested the set with lighting- it was perfect. We were able to manipulate the lighting to make the background barely show at all! DIY tricks really can make a difference.

        Throughout filming we still had many issues trying to get the perfect lighting for the shot we wanted, but everything ended up working out. A huge issue was trying to get the doll to stay on the table when Jessica slammed her hands on it. We ended up gluing the doll to the table, and when we needed to move the doll, we would move the table- very fun. We not only made Jessica look like a "baddie" with the dark lighting, but with her costuming/makeup as well. We wanted her to be wearing all black, but needed something about her to pop-which is why we chose her to wear the purple lipstick. The purple lipstick also added to the blue tone which we tried to emulate through digital methods on the filmic pro app. This shoot definitely took a lot longer, but all our time trying different things and trying to find the best option was totally worth it- the shots came out beautifully.

Until next post!
Nicole Abuid

F. (2014, March 28). How To Light For Darkness! Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15tYFWR4cvA

The Basics of Lighting for Film Noir. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/the-basics-of-lighting-for-film-noir/

D. (2016, March 24). How to Shoot in Low Light. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flh31ZosL-Y

I STEPPED ON THE PRETZELS

   
      Hey y'all! It's time to talk about Sunday- our unusual day of filming. We filmed the entirety of the claymation scene and it went incredibly smoothly quite to my surprise. Since we had already set everything up on Saturday we went straight to shooting. I had already written on the storyboard what lines were to be said at each shot so we knew exactly what Jessica, our actress, needed to say exactly when she needed to say it.

 Some of the issues which we had, yet fixed within a short amount of time, included:
-Getting into the right position to achieve a specific shot
-Changing the ISO depending on the varying light of what area of my room we were shooting in
-Doing manual focus pulls
-Trying to decrease the noise of our shots without majorly changing the ISO
-(More like a mishap) At the beginning of filming we shot a couple shots with Jessica wearing the wrong outfit and we had to re-shoot
-...Audio

       Let me expand upon this. We didn't have a lavalier microphone, so we decided to just use the audio captured from the DSLR...with a back-up plan. We made our own makeshift boom microphone. We taped my iPhone to the end of a Swifter Sweeper and I held it above Jessica (and above the frame of the shot as to not appear within it) and used the voice memos app to record the audio at every shot which required her to speak. Most likely we will use the audio from the DSLR, but its better to be safe than sorry. We will use a voice over in certain shots (the scenes where Jasmin's mom yells at her through her door) but level the audio in post production in order for it not to sound out of place.

    We were incredibly satisfied with the color scheme we chose for Jasmin's room, for the claymation set, for the the doll, the costuming (for both Jessica and the doll), and the filter we achieved through manipulation of the white balance setting. We wanted the color scheme to consist of pinks, oranges, and yellows- for specific reasons. Pink represents happiness and playfulness, yellow represents brightness and creativity, and orange represents courage and confidence- all characteristics which our character possesses. My room already had strong orange tones, and we emphasized the other tones through props and the box set we made for the doll.

Until next post!
Nicole Abuid

Color Psychology: How Different Colors Are Influencing You. (2016, April 16). Retrieved from https://facthacker.com/color-psychology/

The warmer the better!

      HELLO EVERYONE! THERE IS SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT! This weekend was rather hectic for Daniel and I. We spent both Saturday and Sunday on the creation of our film intro.

    Saturday was dedicated to getting the set ready as well as testing camera settings. There were SO MANY discoveries and mishaps which we made throughout this process. We started off by creating the claymation set which we would place the doll in, and which we would get many shots of Jasmin playing and tweaking with. My room quickly became a makeshift art studio- we had paint thrown in one area, clay in another, clothes, cardboard boxes, tiny figurines, and cellophane paper strewn about everywhere. Daniel would be working on one aspect of the room (such as our doll's clay bed) while I worked on another (painting, then blow drying the doll's dresser). 

     After finishing the makeshift doll-house set, we went about transforming my room into Jasmin's. We brainstormed and worked tirelessly in order to make my room into the cave of a bohemian-indie-quirky-nerdy-teen filmmaker. We added posters, blankets, strategically-thrown yellow clothing, and other minute details such as hangers, pens and pencils, water bottles, half eaten food bowls and backpacks in order to achieve the aesthetic we wanted for her room. 

    THEN CAME THE LIGHTS! Now this was a struggle. Everything else before was child's play compared to us having to figure out how the lighting scheme would work, what color cellophane paper we would use, and what setting to use/manipulate on my DSLR. We kept the central lightning of my room's fan but covered it with pink and yellow cellophane paper in order to create a warm room tone, and also covered my desk lamp with the same colors for the same effect. We added a clip-on light to my closet in order to be the main light shining on Jasmin's right side and covered it with only pink cellophane paper (the warmer the better right?). We also added white string lights on my back wall, mainly because string lights look incredibly pretty and give off the "hipster" aesthetic. After we were situated with our lighting, we moved on to figuring out what exactly we were going to do with our DSLR. This is where the bulk of our frustration with the lights came in. We looked up articles about f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO and figured out which settings would be best for us- and then we had to figure out how to access those settings, which lead to ANOTHER round of looking up articles. Daniel then came up with a fantastic idea... we could trick the camera.

    Now hear me out, it makes sense! He said we could work with the white-balance setting to trick the camera into thinking that white was blue- which would then give the film an orange tone. After multiple tries with multiple different colors and objects (once we took a picture of blue cellophane paper reflected onto a piece of purple paper) we decided to use the blue of my wall in order to white-balance the camera. After that, the camera created a beautiful orange filter. I was amazed that we could create that filter just through manipulation of the DSLR and not in post production- it looks so much more natural. We kept these settings for our shoot the next day, which I'll talk more about in my next post!

Until next post,

Nicole Abuid


Mansurov, N. Understanding ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture - A Beginner's Guide. Retrieved from https://photographylife.com/iso-shutter-speed-and-aperture-for-beginners/

Manipulating White Balance for Artistic Effect. (2009, March 02). Retrieved from https://digital-photography-school.com/manipulating-white-balance-for-artistic-effect/

PUPPET FUN

     


    Hi guys! Long time no see! Well, only a couple of days, BUT STILL! I want to dedicate this post to the beautiful puppet which Daniel has created for our film. 

     Our protagonist Jasmin has a strong interest in creating stop motion animated films, and has created this doll with her best friend John who has shared this interest with her since childhood. There is one particular doll, the one shown below, which is very meaningful to her, as it is the first puppet that she and John made together (and it is pretty amazing for just the work of a couple of ambitious kids).
                                          

    The doll itself represents Jasmin's friendship with John, and who Jasmin was/is as a person with him- who she became with John in her life. This leads me to finally talk about the structure of our introduction. 

       The first scene of the introduction is of Jasmin in a dark room interrogating the doll, yelling at her, and then killing her with a gun. However this is all metaphorical, and only in Jasmin's imagination. This scene comes from a later scene from further in the actual film. Then there a graphic match of the barrel of the gun to the lens of a DSLR which Jasmin is working with on a claymation set. This is the next scene, where Jasmin is working on her set with the same doll from the gun scene, until her mom calls her that her friend John is downstairs. 

     The puppet is an essential part of the film and an essential part of who Jasmin is as a character. Daniel spent around 12 hours making her! He started off making a wire base, and then covering her torso/legs and head with air dry clay. Her hair was made with black yarn, and her chest/arms area was covered with yellow fabric. Yellow is a very important color within our film, and I'll talk more about the color psychology I used within this film soon.

Until next post!

Nicole Abuid

She's coming out of her cage and she's doing just fine!

Hey everyone! Many things are underway! When Daniel and I met up this past Friday we created a storyboard draft for our film introduction! Then over the weekend Daniel, being the ambitious and artistic genius that he is, made a clean digital version of the storyboard on Photoshop (which are the photos below). He also made a sketch of what our character, who we officially named Jasmin, will look like. We discussed what we would want the set design to look like, the costuming, and the props which we would need/need to create. The props needed and our set is an extremely crucial element of our film, because they are highly representative of our character and very much needed in presenting her accurately (but I'll talk about that more in the next post).

While Daniel created a digital version of the storyboard, I wrote a very basic draft of the script! It is still a work in progress and it is not nearly in a proper format, but here is a special sneak peak of what I have so far:

First/Gun scene-

Jasmin: So. We meet once again. Face to face. Fake to Fake.

You know you think you're a big deal huh? You're some big shot?

Sure fooled me.

BUT THATS ALL OVER NOW ISN'T IT

It's been over for a long time...
I just didn't realize it

Well not anymore...

It's been nice knowing ya

First/Claymation scene-

Jasmin while playing with the stop motion set: Look at you. You're a star. It's your big moment. Now just stand still- perfect! They like you, they really like you! Now just a little to the right. Good-great! Give me sad give me pouty give me-
*SHE COULD MAKE MOVIE REFERENCES

Mom: Jasmin!

Jasmin: Yes! *continues playing with set*
Where were we? Ah yes, you being absolutely brilliant that's what! Just slide a bit to the left now and-

Mom: JASMIN!

Jasmin: WHAT!

Mom: Come downstairs! Johns here!

Jasmin: Okay coming!
*gets up from set and walks towards center of her room* "Just gotta choose my outfit..." (at the end she says it slowly as she looks around her messy room)

*While choosing her outfits with the jump cuts she could be saying things like "no" "nope" "nah" "ew"   "UGH" and when she finally chooses her outfit she says "voila!"

*Jasmin is about the exit her door and whispers* "I'll be back for you later"

~

I need to make a lot of changes to this unofficial "draft" and make it in the form of an official video/audio format script (which I intend on working on during class tomorrow). I also need to make a shot list! I found some advanced shot list formats which I can use as an aid, as they are incredibly necessary for any type of production. One can never be too tedious in the planning of their film, as every single meticulous detail matters in order to make one's vision a reality.

Until next post,

Nicole Abuid

To Whitewash or Not To Whitewash?

To cast a Latina actress for a Latina character or to cast a white actress for a Latina character? That is the question! Although the answer should be simple.

There has been much controversy surrounding the subject of casting white and/or white passing actors for roles intended for people of color. This practice within films is known as whitewashing, and according to Tom Brook of BBC, "The practice of casting white actors in non-white roles is still prevalent in Hollywood – despite widespread condemnation and protest."  A recent example of this is shown in the casting of Scarlett Johansson, a white actress, in the film "Ghost in the Shell" where the protagonist of the film is Asian.

In some cases actors cast in film and television do come from descent of the race which the character itself is of, however they are cast because they are "white passing." As the protagonist for our short film is a woman of color, we want the actress presenting our character to be of Latina descent, and to have the appearance of it.

We intend on casting our friend Jessica Granados as the actress for our film. She is of Cuban and Chinese descent, and it is apparent in her features. She is a high school senior like our protaganist Jasmin and is incredibly willing to help us. I find it important to find an actress who is the same age/around the same age as our character so that the film appears more realistic.

Until next post,

Nicole Abuid

Stimac, E. (2003, Nov 12). Not Acting Your Age: Playing Older or Younger Than You Are. Retrieved from https://www.backstage.com/news/not-acting-your-age-playing-older-or-younger-than-you-are/

Byford, S. (2016, Nov 13). Ghost in the Shell director defends controversial Scarlett Johansson casting. http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/13/13613614/ghost-in-the-shell-director-defends-controversial-scarlett-johansson-casting. 

Brook, T. (2015, Oct 6). When white actors play other races. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151006-when-white-actors-play-other-races

Face to Fake

HELLO EVERYONE! Daniel and I just had the most productive meeting after school! We created a storyboard draft for our short film AS WELL as a completed outline for it (which is the loose ends we needed to tie before I shared it). Now… for the moment you’ve all been waiting for… here is our story:

Jasmin is our Latina 17 year old high school senior protagonist. She would be childhood best friends with John. John is her 17 year old high school senior best friend. They were everything to each other and were platonically in love. Jasmin is bi-sexual and does not feel anything romantic/sexual towards John. They developed the same hobbies as one another together throughout their childhood and as they grow older. However, during their senior year John gets a girlfriend, Alexa. It is to be kept in mind that Jasmin is a liberal and John is a left-leaning moderate. Alexa absolutely despises Jasmin and is incredibly jealous of how close she is with John. Alexa completely discredits Jasmin being bisexual and believes her to be nothing more than a greedy lesbian. She is jealous that she can never have the closeness with John that Jasmin has with him- so the only thing she can do is destroy that closeness. She tells John that she doesn’t think that Jasmin is a good influence on him and she doesn’t like that they are hanging out with one another. John starts to hang out less and less with Jasmin, and he begins to take on the beliefs of Alexa regarding Jasmin. Jasmin isn’t jealous of Alexa, but it is clear to her that John is unhappy and that this isn’t who John really is. Jasmin is under the illusion that maybe John is unhappy because of something that she is doing. Jasmin tries to save their relationship, attempting to revive it by bringing back the old memories and interests which they shared-but it isn’t working. She becomes upset when nothing that she is doing seems to be working. Jasmin and John get into a huge fight, where John tells Jasmin that she is acting fake. She thinks, “Well, maybe I am, maybe everything John and I had together isn’t real. Maybe I didn’t really care for everything we did, and maybe I just put on a persona of someone who I’m not.” John tells Jasmin that she needs to leave him alone forever. She is incredibly upset about this, and has a breakdown. During this breakdown she attempts to metaphorically kill this puppet which she and John had created as children during their filming adventures. She associates the puppet with everything that she and John were, believing that the old her was just a fake persona which she created for herself. After this breakdown she decides not to pursue her interests anymore with the mindset that she only liked those things because John liked those things. She soon realizes that despite her giving up the pursuits which she and John enjoyed together, John still doesn’t want to be her friend and she is very unhappy. This makes her realize that she genuinely enjoyed those hobbies and that they are things which matter to her. Although she is sad about her broken friendship with John, she can find happiness without him, and she has to put herself and her interests first.

*wipes forehead* That sure was a lot! And again, not everything written here will be included in our introduction, but making an outline of an entire plot allows Daniel and I to create an introduction that is a part of a whole rather than just a part in itself.

Until next post,

Nicole Abuid

Kramer Bussel, R. Why Don;t People Take Bisexuality Seriously? https://www.damemagazine.com/2015/01/14/why-dont-people-take-bisexuality-seriously