Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Creative Critical Reflection
Hey guys! Here is the link to my CCR :) Hopefully this helps you understand the film opening a lot more.
Film Opening: Mother, Oh Mine
Hey guys! Just posted our video for our film opening Mother, Oh Mine! We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it!!
I Should've Just Done A Magazine
The title of this post represents my feelings accurately. I really did wish I would have done the magazine project individually because 1) I don't have to depend on others to be responsible for their part of the project 2) I get to work on my own time and 3) I get to choose the theme that I want and no one can contradict.
On the bright side, our group came up with another idea in class. Basically, It was about this lesbian couple and there are these Christian people who see them and disapprove and kidnap one of them. They got this idea because apparently in the Christian faith, it is against the religion to be a homosexual. This Christian group in our film is supposed to be apart of a cult, a system of veneration and devotion toward a particular figure or object, that tries to get rid of the homosexual community. One of my group members thought it would be a good ideas if I was one of the lesbians in the film opening. I was okay with the idea until Nico told me that I should kiss a girl and ask which friend would be okay with it and let me tell you, that idea made me uncomfortable to the core. But I knew that this project is huge and we don't have that much time left, so I knew just the girl to contact. My friend Sarah. I texted her asking if I could use her lips for a project, as confused as she was, she accepted anyways. So I found the person I would have to kiss, so I thought. It did not end up working out because she had to stay after school to prepare for the school musical Fame. I needed a plan B, which we did get. Alessia contacted one of her friends and they agreed to be part of the video.
Next day was friday and we were prepared to film after school. After coming home I waited for about an hour until Alessia, her friend Ana, and Nico showed up. I made it clear that I only had a couple of hours to film because my brother and I had tickets to see the school musical. We filmed what we could. We filmed a scene of Ana walking up to the door to which I open and we both hug and me grabbing her hand, taking her inside the house, Me taking her through the house to the outside, us eating a meal that I prepared, and us "kissing". filming this was incredibly difficult even though the concept was so easy. We had trouble getting the hug right, what to say, trying not to get Alessia or Nico in the shot as they filmed, and trying to fake kiss right. I ended up arriving late to Fame because we were still filming and needed to film the kissing scene, which we nailed after about 10 takes. It would have been a lot easier to film the fake kiss if it wasn't for the both of us not being friends and straight.
Saturday, Nico and Alessia came over so that we could start editing the footage that we got from the previous day. After looking at it, we realized that it was garbage. The footage just did not seem to make sense and a lot of what we had looked either cheesy or unnecessary. We then decided to re film...again. We needed to come up with another idea for like the fourth time and we had just the thing. Though it did not occur to me, one of my group mates noticed all the photos of my mom in my mom's office (where we were working) and realized that I look a lot like her. Their idea was that what if we make our opening a video about me being obsessed with my mother or something of the sort. After we talked it out, we decided that this was the best we got. We filmed me on the couch in my mom's office because it looked so serious and that's what we wanted since we wanted it to set the tone and mood for a thriller film. To get the right height for the camera, we stacked a bunch of books on my vanity chair and to have the phone be stabilized , Nico broke apart my selfie stick. My brother helped write the script that I would be using, here it is:
A seedling can not grow in the shadow of a tree from which it fell
It needs a chance to see the light
I felt...overshadowed
I felt as though I would never have any opportunity to grow with my mother around
If I ran a mile, she ran a marathon
She always had to one up me.
I knew that with her around, I would never be able to progress
so i murdered her
I ripped the piano wire out of the baby grand in our loft, walked into her room in he dead of night, and strangles her.
As I did it, there was a feeling of relief in seeing the life pour out of her eyes
It was as if the life she was loosing was being given to me
I am not ashamed or devastated by the murder
I am proud, for now this little seedling can reach towards the sun and show the world the fruits of its tireless labor.
If you wish to find the body, it is in a brush in the everglades. My name is Caterina Wu
You can find me at 3458 Eagle Pointe Dr.
I'll be waiting for you
I rehearsed this many times while filming so that it could be one long take of me talking. After I got it right, Nico though it would be better that instead of brush, I said actual coordinated. So he looked up coordinates in the Everglades, 25 degrees 17 17.7 N 8- degrees 54 05.9 W. So Alessia filmed me again with me saying that instead of brush and that was the final take.
All we have left is to edit the video and film our CCR and we are finally done!!!
On the bright side, our group came up with another idea in class. Basically, It was about this lesbian couple and there are these Christian people who see them and disapprove and kidnap one of them. They got this idea because apparently in the Christian faith, it is against the religion to be a homosexual. This Christian group in our film is supposed to be apart of a cult, a system of veneration and devotion toward a particular figure or object, that tries to get rid of the homosexual community. One of my group members thought it would be a good ideas if I was one of the lesbians in the film opening. I was okay with the idea until Nico told me that I should kiss a girl and ask which friend would be okay with it and let me tell you, that idea made me uncomfortable to the core. But I knew that this project is huge and we don't have that much time left, so I knew just the girl to contact. My friend Sarah. I texted her asking if I could use her lips for a project, as confused as she was, she accepted anyways. So I found the person I would have to kiss, so I thought. It did not end up working out because she had to stay after school to prepare for the school musical Fame. I needed a plan B, which we did get. Alessia contacted one of her friends and they agreed to be part of the video.
Next day was friday and we were prepared to film after school. After coming home I waited for about an hour until Alessia, her friend Ana, and Nico showed up. I made it clear that I only had a couple of hours to film because my brother and I had tickets to see the school musical. We filmed what we could. We filmed a scene of Ana walking up to the door to which I open and we both hug and me grabbing her hand, taking her inside the house, Me taking her through the house to the outside, us eating a meal that I prepared, and us "kissing". filming this was incredibly difficult even though the concept was so easy. We had trouble getting the hug right, what to say, trying not to get Alessia or Nico in the shot as they filmed, and trying to fake kiss right. I ended up arriving late to Fame because we were still filming and needed to film the kissing scene, which we nailed after about 10 takes. It would have been a lot easier to film the fake kiss if it wasn't for the both of us not being friends and straight.
Saturday, Nico and Alessia came over so that we could start editing the footage that we got from the previous day. After looking at it, we realized that it was garbage. The footage just did not seem to make sense and a lot of what we had looked either cheesy or unnecessary. We then decided to re film...again. We needed to come up with another idea for like the fourth time and we had just the thing. Though it did not occur to me, one of my group mates noticed all the photos of my mom in my mom's office (where we were working) and realized that I look a lot like her. Their idea was that what if we make our opening a video about me being obsessed with my mother or something of the sort. After we talked it out, we decided that this was the best we got. We filmed me on the couch in my mom's office because it looked so serious and that's what we wanted since we wanted it to set the tone and mood for a thriller film. To get the right height for the camera, we stacked a bunch of books on my vanity chair and to have the phone be stabilized , Nico broke apart my selfie stick. My brother helped write the script that I would be using, here it is:
A seedling can not grow in the shadow of a tree from which it fell
It needs a chance to see the light
I felt...overshadowed
I felt as though I would never have any opportunity to grow with my mother around
If I ran a mile, she ran a marathon
She always had to one up me.
I knew that with her around, I would never be able to progress
so i murdered her
I ripped the piano wire out of the baby grand in our loft, walked into her room in he dead of night, and strangles her.
As I did it, there was a feeling of relief in seeing the life pour out of her eyes
It was as if the life she was loosing was being given to me
I am not ashamed or devastated by the murder
I am proud, for now this little seedling can reach towards the sun and show the world the fruits of its tireless labor.
If you wish to find the body, it is in a brush in the everglades. My name is Caterina Wu
You can find me at 3458 Eagle Pointe Dr.
I'll be waiting for you
I rehearsed this many times while filming so that it could be one long take of me talking. After I got it right, Nico though it would be better that instead of brush, I said actual coordinated. So he looked up coordinates in the Everglades, 25 degrees 17 17.7 N 8- degrees 54 05.9 W. So Alessia filmed me again with me saying that instead of brush and that was the final take.
All we have left is to edit the video and film our CCR and we are finally done!!!
A Cry for Help
I got a WhatsApp notification from Alessia telling Nico and I that one of the actors is leaving at 3:00pm for a flight to New York. UM PROBLEM!!! We have not finished filming the 2 of them and he is essential for our production. She said to meet after school but that is impossible. School ends at 2:45 and I do not get home from the bus unil about 3:20. WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO???? Are we going to have to have another idea? Are we going to meet after school and film what we can? I am freaking out, there is not much time left and we have an unfinished production. I am SO OVER IT!
Filming Day 1
I am happy to announce that we finally started filming!! IT'S BEEN ABOUT TIME! My group and I got together on Saturday to start filming our opening. First let me tell you our final idea for our production:
- Guy is in a car with friends having fun
- Guy and friends get into car accident- hit a tree
- Guy wakes up on ground, confused, sees a red string attached to his finger
- Guy gets up, pulls the string
- Girl on other side of string pulls the string
- Both the guy and girl meet and gaze into each other's eyes
- Montage of them being romantic
- Girl grabs his arm and then her hand goes limp
- She says "Come find me"
- Girl walks away, looks back and smiles
- Scene ends
- Guy wakes up in hospital robe in some type of field
That's all we have so far, but it is an established concept. Prior to filming and meeting up, Alessia suggested that to film the car accident scene, we would need to get dry ice so that it could have that destroyed effect. Alessia tried purchasing the dry ice but could not purchase the dry ice because she was not 18 years of age, the age required to purchase this product. So we decided not to film the car accident scene on Saturday. We will film the car accident scene another day, and also, to make the car look even more destroyed, we would put up the hood of the car so that it looks popped opened as an effect of the impact. Alessia hired her 2 friends as actors for our opening, and they just happen to be an actual couple. We all met up at Markham park and began filming the guy waking up on the ground seeing he girl as well as filming scenes of a montage of them being romantic. We will get together another time to film the rest of the film, but I am so happy that we started filming. Stay tuned!
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Oh How the Tables Have Turned
Well today was an interesting day. "Interesting" isn't the right word, but not gonna lie, I was nervous. I am nervous because our teacher said that groups should be almost done filming.....WHAT THE HECK!!!! OUR GROUP DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A SOLID IDEA AND WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ALMOST DONE FILMING BY NOW??? This is rough. I am very worried for our group because we cannot come to an agreement with an idea. At least, that is what I thought. I was supposed to leave early during class to go to an appointment and my goal was to at least have an idea of what we are going to be doing before I had to leave my group for today. When we got together in class, I was not expecting Nico to have an outline done for the red string of fate idea. That shocked me. Here is what he came up with:
Video opens on kids driving in a car, laughing being reckless
Voiceover describing the red string of fate
Speedometer shows above 90
Girl in back, points looking worried and mouths "Watch out"
We've only heard laughs and the voice over so far,
Screams are heard
Shot gets darker
Slow motion
Drivers head hits the wheel
Everybody lurches forward in unison with driver
They crashed btw
Piercing noise, like when grenades go off in movies/End of voiceover
Wakes up in hospital
We could go to Broward Health and borrow a flappy dress/gown thing with the slits on the back
Gets up
Sees clothes
Walks out of room
Now we see the protagonist in the empty lobby of the Broward Health building
He walks outside
Car is waiting there for him
Looks down, sees keys, unlocks car, gets in
Now we see his/her life progress
Noticesred ring made of string around his finger, red nylon tied to his finger
Falls in love,she has ring as well
The strings begin to come closer, tie them together with nylon and every other scene make the nylon less and red string more to show their love is getting closer and closer. Or already start out with red nylon and slowly increase the thickness, moving onto cotton, then yarn as scenes progress.
Move in together
So and so forth
Btw I apologize for the formatting of my description of this scene but it's how I think and how I believe I can best communicate this idea.
Life carries on
One day he looks over to the corner, a lamp looks out of place
Looks like a normal lamp but the lighting is off, looks like CGI
He begins to eat dinner staring at the lamp, goes on for a few meals
Begins to simply stare at the lamp
Wife comes crying trying to take his attention off of the lamp, red string is noticeably thinner now
Becomes engrossed with the lamp
In the background, shallow focus but the wife can be seen screaming and leaving with a suitcase.
Lamp Glitches, begins to float.
Man runs out, goes up a building, kills himself.
Wakes up on the ground next to the car and strobing police lights,
goes back unconscious
Wakes up and wishes he could go back, regrets leaving his wife.
Life goes on,
Eventually he comes across a lamp in a store.
The lamp.
He runs in and grabs it, he's touching it all over ensuring it is real
He falls and cries happy or sad, not sure yet, I'll talk to my group
Looks down sees red nylon
The introcould does end here, but so far it's veeeerrry long or it could continue showing him chasing the string, ending at a pier
Citations:
Negb. "My Journey." My Journey. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.
Video opens on kids driving in a car, laughing being reckless
Voiceover describing the red string of fate
Speedometer shows above 90
Girl in back, points looking worried and mouths "Watch out"
We've only heard laughs and the voice over so far,
Screams are heard
Shot gets darker
Slow motion
Drivers head hits the wheel
Everybody lurches forward in unison with driver
They crashed btw
Piercing noise, like when grenades go off in movies/End of voiceover
Wakes up in hospital
We could go to Broward Health and borrow a flappy dress/gown thing with the slits on the back
Gets up
Sees clothes
Walks out of room
Now we see the protagonist in the empty lobby of the Broward Health building
He walks outside
Car is waiting there for him
Looks down, sees keys, unlocks car, gets in
Now we see his/her life progress
Notices
Falls in love,
Move in together
So and so forth
Btw I apologize for the formatting of my description of this scene but it's how I think and how I believe I can best communicate this idea.
Life carries on
One day he looks over to the corner, a lamp looks out of place
Looks like a normal lamp but the lighting is off, looks like CGI
He begins to eat dinner staring at the lamp, goes on for a few meals
Begins to simply stare at the lamp
Wife comes crying trying to take his attention off of the lamp, red string is noticeably thinner now
Becomes engrossed with the lamp
In the background, shallow focus but the wife can be seen screaming and leaving with a suitcase.
Lamp Glitches, begins to float.
Man runs out, goes up a building, kills himself.
Wakes up on the ground next to the car and strobing police lights,
goes back unconscious
Wakes up and wishes he could go back, regrets leaving his wife.
Life goes on,
Eventually he comes across a lamp in a store.
The lamp.
He runs in and grabs it, he's touching it all over ensuring it is real
He falls and cries happy or sad, not sure yet, I'll talk to my group
Looks down sees red nylon
The intro
Citations:
Negb. "My Journey." My Journey. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Thank GOD for group meetings
Dear Blog,
Today was a good day in class. We got to meet with members of other groups to see what we all have come up with so far as well as give our opinions to help improve ideas. I was put into a group with Sam, Harrison, and Isabella P. I can't tell you how much they helped with our group's idea, well at least I thought personally. I told them what I have repeating throughout my blog posts: guy wakes up in the middle of the ocean confused, mysterious man on paddle board talks to him and asks question that startles and confuses the guy (basically). I also told them how there should be symbol tattoo on the paddle board guy and the scene ends with the main guy putting his hair behind his ear of something and reveals the same symbol. I explained that the symbol could mean that they are part of an organization that of course would not be revealed in the opening so that the audience would want to keep watching. They gave me ideas that were so much better than what our group was thinking. I do not recall who said what, but let me tell you their input.
Here is the input they gave me: maybe instead of being in the water, go to a crowded place and have a guy there looking confused and concerned and asking people where he is instead of him waking up in a body water and there being an ariel shot of that body of water. And with the whole symbol/tattoo thing, WHOO it's so exciting. I might not explain it well but hopefully you get the gist of it. Okay so, the guy wakes up confused and lost because his memory was wiped clean, not completely, but just the stuff the organization wanted him to forget about that company. The tattoo represents the organization that he was apart of, and the paddle board guy is affiliated with the same group. It was brought up that maybe if we wanted to keep that concept of water, the organization was taking the water and there was a small amount of water left. Another idea, suggested by Isabella Patino, was perhaps maybe the organization was in control if infants and they raise the kids a certain way and that the confused guy was part of that but he was different from the others because he was not really under the organization's control. The guy wanted to stop the organization because they were a bad group of people and when they found out that he was trying to put this organization to an end, they clear his memory so that he forgets all about it. I thought that idea was genius, original, and simply just amazing. Of course it was not just her that came up with that idea, they all helped to help shape my overall idea, they were kind of piggy-backing each other. I was so excited to tell my group members what was said during the meeting.
Nico, Alessia, and I asked Stoklosa if we could discuss our project outside the classroom so that we could have a quieter setting. I eagerly wanted to tell them what was said during my meeting session and so i explained to them what was brought up. I believe Nico wasn't a big fan of the whole government idea and I am not entirely sure how Alessia felt about it because I cannot recall. Nico was telling us how the group he was assigned to loved is idea and Alessia and I were straight up telling him that we were not fans of the idea overall because it's difficult to film in general. Nico was saying how he wants to promise something to the audience, which I think is a good idea but promise something without spoon feeding of course or else there wouldn't be anything engaging. Alessia was saying something about a japanese myth called the red string of fate which was this idea that there is an invisible red thread that connects people who are destined to meet. I thought this was a cool concept and if we were to do this route for our film, it would be meaningful. Nico thought it was a cool idea, but he seemed a little too focused on his idea and really wanted us to go with his idea. My group mates then started bickering a little and WOW I felt so uncomfortable. I was the little girl watching her parents fight, it was weird. Nico then said for us to make an outline of any ideas by the end of the day so that we could see which one is the best option. Time to see where we go from here.
Citations:
"The Legend of the Red String of Japan." Aleph. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.
Today was a good day in class. We got to meet with members of other groups to see what we all have come up with so far as well as give our opinions to help improve ideas. I was put into a group with Sam, Harrison, and Isabella P. I can't tell you how much they helped with our group's idea, well at least I thought personally. I told them what I have repeating throughout my blog posts: guy wakes up in the middle of the ocean confused, mysterious man on paddle board talks to him and asks question that startles and confuses the guy (basically). I also told them how there should be symbol tattoo on the paddle board guy and the scene ends with the main guy putting his hair behind his ear of something and reveals the same symbol. I explained that the symbol could mean that they are part of an organization that of course would not be revealed in the opening so that the audience would want to keep watching. They gave me ideas that were so much better than what our group was thinking. I do not recall who said what, but let me tell you their input.
Here is the input they gave me: maybe instead of being in the water, go to a crowded place and have a guy there looking confused and concerned and asking people where he is instead of him waking up in a body water and there being an ariel shot of that body of water. And with the whole symbol/tattoo thing, WHOO it's so exciting. I might not explain it well but hopefully you get the gist of it. Okay so, the guy wakes up confused and lost because his memory was wiped clean, not completely, but just the stuff the organization wanted him to forget about that company. The tattoo represents the organization that he was apart of, and the paddle board guy is affiliated with the same group. It was brought up that maybe if we wanted to keep that concept of water, the organization was taking the water and there was a small amount of water left. Another idea, suggested by Isabella Patino, was perhaps maybe the organization was in control if infants and they raise the kids a certain way and that the confused guy was part of that but he was different from the others because he was not really under the organization's control. The guy wanted to stop the organization because they were a bad group of people and when they found out that he was trying to put this organization to an end, they clear his memory so that he forgets all about it. I thought that idea was genius, original, and simply just amazing. Of course it was not just her that came up with that idea, they all helped to help shape my overall idea, they were kind of piggy-backing each other. I was so excited to tell my group members what was said during the meeting.
Nico, Alessia, and I asked Stoklosa if we could discuss our project outside the classroom so that we could have a quieter setting. I eagerly wanted to tell them what was said during my meeting session and so i explained to them what was brought up. I believe Nico wasn't a big fan of the whole government idea and I am not entirely sure how Alessia felt about it because I cannot recall. Nico was telling us how the group he was assigned to loved is idea and Alessia and I were straight up telling him that we were not fans of the idea overall because it's difficult to film in general. Nico was saying how he wants to promise something to the audience, which I think is a good idea but promise something without spoon feeding of course or else there wouldn't be anything engaging. Alessia was saying something about a japanese myth called the red string of fate which was this idea that there is an invisible red thread that connects people who are destined to meet. I thought this was a cool concept and if we were to do this route for our film, it would be meaningful. Nico thought it was a cool idea, but he seemed a little too focused on his idea and really wanted us to go with his idea. My group mates then started bickering a little and WOW I felt so uncomfortable. I was the little girl watching her parents fight, it was weird. Nico then said for us to make an outline of any ideas by the end of the day so that we could see which one is the best option. Time to see where we go from here.
Citations:
"The Legend of the Red String of Japan." Aleph. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.
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