Action!

One of the main components of this project is the film opening. I am at the point where filming is my main priority. This is simultaneously the easiest and hardest part. It is easy because I have been planning it for weeks and know exactly what I want to do, but hard because I want it to be absolutely perfect. As I'm filming I'm learning that it won't be perfect. Accepting that is important for me, as a perfectionist. I'm not a professional, and not even professionals make perfect films, but I can try my hardest to produce the best opening I can.

Since my setting is a suburban neighborhood, it was fairly simple to find a location to shoot in. The city I live in is the perfect backdrop for my film. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a movie. All the house are very similar, and they are all colors within the same color palette. Everything here is very standardized. Everyone shops at the same places, eats at the same restaurants, and goes to the same schools.

I mainly filmed in and around my own neighborhood. I had easy access and it worked for what I needed. For my opening I want to focus on introducing the setting so many of my shots relate to that. Here are some stills from things I've shot so far.

Now I know these may seem simple but these are stills of shots I plan to use for the film opening credits. It will be a way to incorporate credits while creating that sense of setting. I don't want to give away too much of what is being filmed, so I'm just going to leave off here for now, but expect some more behind the scenes looks soon.

A Change In Plans: Genre

As I've worked through the process I realized that I didn't quite nail the genre. I originally claimed my film to be a drama, but upon reflection, I would say it is a fantasy/drama. Why the change? Well, some of the aspects of my film aren't truly realistic. In my previous post I talked about the premise of my film. One of the main plot points is the main character discovering that beyond her quaint, suburban town lies absolutely nothing. Beyond the town the Earth is unmarked by man, her town being the only source of life. Now you can probably see why this isn't exactly realistic. Actually, in reality, there are few parts of the world untouched by mankind.

The main reason I made it a drama/fantasy and not just a straight fantasy was because I wanted the film to focus more on the main character and her developments throughout the film rather than focus on the fantastical aspects.

Some examples of fantasy/drama films include:

Big Fish
The story follows Will, who attempts to understand the truth behind his dying fathers tall tales. The film brilliantly combines fantasy into reality, weaving them together in a believable way. The film, like mine has elements of fantasy mixed with real life situations and problems.



The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The film is about a man named Benjamin Button who ages backwards. The film presents this bizarre feature in a very realistic way. This film leans a little more drama than fantasy, like how I imagine my film to be.








Sources:
Big Fish. Dir. Tim Burton. Perf. Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney. Columbia Pictures Production, 2003.
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/bigfish/index.html
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Warner Bros., 2008.
https://www.facebook.com/BenjaminButtonMovie

What It's All About

Before going on I feel like I should tell you all what the film is about! Here we go.

The film takes place in a small suburban town. Life is very quaint and picturesque, the definition of perfection. The story follows a young girl named Violet, whose dreams are larger than life. She doesn't fit in to the cookie-cutter society. She is different in every way. Her intelligence exceeds all, but this also causes the townspeople to view her as mentally handicap. They see her intelligence and wild imagination as a disability rather than a gift. This perception of her allows the town to overlook her oddities. They let her dress and act however, because they feel that she is handicapped. But her differences allow her to question life and thrive for more. At 17, Violet makes a startling discovery while exploring, beyond her little town lies a barren wasteland. Her world is turned upside as all her hopes and dreams of leaving and making a new life for herself are destroyed. Now Violet must find a way to give her life meaning within the confinements of suburbia.

When creating my concept I wanted to keep it traditional with a twist. I referred to a little chart on how to create the perfect story. This helped me map out the storyI am very pleased with the end result and think it would make an excellent film. I'm excited to share my film opening and hope it does the concept justice!

Sources:

http://sco.lt/6hBbpR

The Art of the Storyboard

One of the most helpful tools used when creating a film is a storyboard. A storyboard acts as a guideline of the production. They let you know what needs to be filmed and how. It is the perfect way to translate your thoughts before going to film.

When I was beginning my storyboards I was self conscious about my art skills. I wouldn't say I'm a horrible artist, but I'm also not the best. When conducting my research I looked at storyboards from popular films. Upon looking at them I began to panic. There was no way mine were ever going to look as good as those. I them stumbled across something that calmed my nerves. It was a video how to create storyboards, even if you can't draw! This video restored my hope for my own storyboard.

Now it was time to create my storyboard. What was important wasn't my art skills, but my ability to interpret my drawings (I even added notes for extra clarity). Creating the storyboard proved to be more challenging than I anticipated though. I didn't anticipate to difficulty of translating my wild thoughts into legible drawings. I knew what I wanted to do, just not how to show it. Eventually I figured it out and was able to piece together my film opening together. Here is the first nine shots of my opening.

Under (or above) each box I included a short description of the type of shot or any movement so that when I go to film I will know exactly what needs to be done. Also the little scribbles on the first 6 squares symbolize text that I will add in later. Now I understand this isn't my complete storyboard, but I wouldn't want to give the entire opening away. I'm excited to get filming!

Sources:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/12/sketching-out-psycho-production-storyboards-from-15-beloved-films/265785/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux_Em1lVsjI

My Inspiration: Wes Anderson

For the style of my film I was greatly inspired by Wes Anderson, a critically acclaimed creator and film maker. Some of his most notable films include Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

I will admit, his films aren't for everyone. You either love him or you hate him. Personally,  I have been a long time fan of his work. There is something about his films that are so intriguing and unique. His style is easily identifiable with his robotic movements and quirky aesthetic.

The opening scene to Moonrise Kingdom is the perfect way to introduce Wes Anderson to those who have never seen any of his films.

This opening has very few cuts and utilizes stable, geometric movements. It is the robotic movements that I find very unique. My goal is to successfully incorporate it into my own film opening.

The way I plan to achieve this is with use of a camera dolly. This will help me achieve the fluidity I'm looking for. I also recently viewed a video documenting the creation of the hotel featured in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Within the video you can see the use of several dollies used to film the movie. Although I don't have access to a camera dolly or track, I'm sure I can think of something to create the same effect.

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2ux1RSaeKQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYMfEKELveQ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_dolly
Moonrise Kingdom. Dir. Wes Anderson. Perf. Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Indian Paintbrush, 2012.
The Grand Budapest Hotel. Dir. Wes Anderson. Perf. Ralph Finnes and F. Murray Abraham. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2014.

Character Design

This is just a quick update to my last post. Since then I have sketched out some ideas on how I picture the wardrobe of my characters.

The first drawing represents my main character. Her clothing is a bit more odd and fun than others in the community. Her wardrobe is full of bright colors, loud patterns, and funky fabrics. In this sketch I drew her in a striped shirt and tulle skirt.

The next drawing is representative of the community, plain clothes and lackluster colors. I picture khaki or black pants with a collared shirt. The only variation being the length of the sleeve and different neutral colors.

The Star of the Show

My main character is probably my favorite part of my film. My main character is going to be a female around the age of 17 in high school. I have not yet decided on name for her but I promise to update when I find the perfect one.

She is quirky and extremely intelligent. Her intelligence is her greatest strength, her IQ is beyond that of Einstein. Despite her intelligence she doesn't do well in school. Not because she doesn't know the material, but because it is so rudimentary that she doesn't bother to try. She is bored with life bored of school.

The way she dresses also differs from the norm. Instead of wearing the traditional khaki pants or pleated skirt and plain polo top, she dresses more ostentatiously. She loves bright colors and fun patterns and the occasional tulle skirt. She is the black sheep of her community.

The community around her is very plain and uniform. Everyone dresses in a similar way and acts as their society has told them to. The reason the community allows her to dress this way and act this way is because they believe she is mentally handicapped. They see her failing grades and sense of fashion as side effects of her disability. What they don't know is how incredibly wrong they are.

I had two main film inspirations for this choice: Rain Man and The Imitation Game.

The film Rain Man stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. The film is about Charlie Babbitt, who discover that he has an estranged older brother after his father dies. He learns that his father left his $3 million dollar fortune to his other son Raymond. Raymond lives in a mental institution because he is an autistic savant. This means that although he is autistic, he is extremely intelligent when it comes to a specific skill, in this cause math and spatial ability. In one particular scene Charlie and Raymond are in a diner. The waitress then drops a container of toothpicks on the floor. As she picks them up Raymond shouts out a number, that number being how many toothpick were in the container.

The Imitation Game is about Alan Turing, a revolutionary mathematician who helped break the Nazi code, Enigma, during World War II. There is a specific part in the film where it shows Turing when he was in school. The scene involves him and his friend Christopher who get caught passing notes in class, but they wrote their notes in code. The teacher saw the note and thought that Turing was stupid because he was writing gibberish. He automatically assumed that he was stupid when in reality he had a far superior intelligence.

Alan is shown on the left, his friend Christopher on the right.

Sources: 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677584/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqbXPfaN_VM

The Imitation Game. Dir. Moten Tyldum. Perf. Benedict Cumberbatch and Kiera Knightley. Black Bear Pictures, 2014.

Rain Man. Dir. Barry Levinson. Perf. Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. United Artists, 1988.