2 Week schedule (7/3-18/3)

  I wanna show you guys the schedule me and my partner have planned for the next two weeks. This way we can be more productive and finish everything with time to spare. Basically, try to prevent procrastinating. I am way too nervous that I will be up all night finishing the project because I didn’t plan anything out, so this schedule is a way to calm myself down and reassure me that I'll be able to finish everything days before we actually have to turn it in.

Week 4 

Monday 7/3-   

• Finish building the characters:  

• Ethnicity

• Personality 

• overall aesthetic,

•  finalize tittle 

Tuesday 8/3-

• Decide if the couple’s child would be a female or male

• Pick an actor for the voiceover

• Finish costume details

• Post a blog.

Wednesday 9/3- 

• Post update in blog

• Share costume design with actors, to see of they have according costumes

• Buy anything we need (costume wise)

Thursday 10/3-  

• Finalize the script

• Confirm the day to record the voiceover with actor 

• Choose lighting setup for filming 

Friday 11/3-    

• Research fonts for title and credits 

• Post Blog post 

Saturday 12/4-  

• Get any extra props if needed

Sunday 13/4- 

• Get any extra props if needed

Week 5

Monday 14/3- 

• Prepare house for filming (move furniture) 

• Make sure we have everything ready

• Blog Post

Tuesday 15/3- 

• FILMING DAY!!! (5-8pm) 

• Finish setting up house 

Wednesday 16/3- 

• Review footage from the day before

• Research a little about other openings, to prepare for editing 

• Post blog 

• If needed schedule another filming day as soon as possible

Thursday 17/3- 

• Decide who edits and start editing

• Post blog post, 

Friday 18/3- 

• Make a distribution company title

• Continue editing

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Who are the actors

 Guys I have awesome news, We have to go to the actors for the opening!!. The people playing the roles would be some close family friends, who are basically my parent best friends. They are both really excited to be involved in the project, so much so they have been asking me about wardrobe, makeup, and character background to prepare for the role. 

 For the opening, we needed a middle-aged couple, two people who look like they have experience life, which is why we couldn't look in our own age range. If we would've cast teens the whole aesthetic of the movie would be off, it wouldn't make sense.  

I was a little nervous to ask them if they would be able to be in the opening, not because they are my adults, but because I was scared they would say no. I really wanted them for the role because how they act around people is very animated, she can make life with everything, and he can do the same. My mom was the one who spoke to them through the phone, not me because I was doing homework. Luckily she was able to convince them easily to be my actors. The only requirement they asked for was for my mom's food, which will be their form of payment.  

After my mom talked to her for a while, her friend wanted to ask me a couple questions. She was already excited to do it (you could feel it in her voice), but she just wanted to know if she had the right outfit, shoes, and ability to do the hairstyle plan for the role. Same as for her husband, who would be the only one with small dialogue, though I wasn't able to talk to him, I know he would be excited to do this. 

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Soooo..... where are we filming?

 Hey guys, so after a little planning, we have a location for filming. I and my partner both thought that the opening should be filmed in a house, the place that would make the most sense for the events to happen. We both even imagined similar décor, structure, and overall room plan for the house we are going to film at. 

I mean where are we actually filming was pretty easy to figure out as well, basically what house are we using. The area that we wanted to film had to include things from the following list:

•  A big open space
• a big window/ sliding window into the outside
•  some vintage décor,
• good lighting.

   
These combined would be the perfect place to film, but we had to settle with what we had in hand. Also, we wanted the film to feel like be set in modern times, which is why we wanted a big space but to make the audience feel like the couple is old-fashioned with their décor. 

We realized that most houses in Florida have similar things, like the big spaces and big windows, though they really weren't anything close to these reference pictures. Nevertheless, we knew we could find something with similar characteristics. 

Perfect enough, my house actually has most of the things we are looking for, like the windows and open space, the only thing missing would be the vintage décor, but we already have this issue figured out, with props. Bringing in the props i mentioned a few posts ago will help bring the vintage feel to the opening. 

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The journey to find the right song

As you guys know me and my partner were set on old jazz, mainly looking for songs around the 1940s-1960s that have that old romance vibe. We felt that it would really fit the love between the man and their women, given that they will be considered old-fashioned today. We felt their romance and the things in relation to their romance(the song) should revolve around the same idea too.  

After searching all of the first and second week endlessly for songs that could work. Through a few Spotify playlists and YouTube recommended videos, narrowing it down to five songs then later 2, the finalists were: "Only you and you alone "by The Platters and "And I love you so" by Don Mclean. The Platters songs were our first pick while Don Mclean was our backup. Having the song already picked felt as if we have accomplished something, like "finally after days of searching we finally found the one". Though we quickly remembered we still have a bunch of other things we have to check off the list before we can even say "yes we have done it".  I like to celebrate every accomplishment. 

                                                   (to be honest, we somewhat felt like these guys)

After beginning work on the other work in the list, I saw it, coming out a dark corner in big, bold, red letters, the copyright laws. I feared that I wasn't going to be able to use the songs that I have found and already had selected as our songs. I searched the web, and just what I was scared of the songs were still owned by a company/ artists. All my hard work, just to be told "no you can't use it".

 I was devastated, the songs that I imagined by opening to have, I cant use.  I quickly made another google search to see what songs are public domain (free to use to the public), According to a website I found on January 1,2022 any songs released before 1922 are public domain. While I was reading this information I felt the door of songs from 1940-1960 closed, but a new door opened one filled with hope, I could still be able to use Jazz in my project, but from the 1920s (how different would the songs be, I thought, oh was I wrong) 

I started my new search for songs from this era, just like I started my previous search, through Spotify. I thought this was going to be easy, a quick playlist search and I would find songs that would fit, boy was I wrong. The first playlist that came up didn't even have songs from the 1920s. That was wasn't when I knew that this wasn't going to be like my previous search. When I finally found a group of songs that could work, on YouTube (Playlist )before I even started playing I felt relieved, but that went away soon when I played the first song. The music had a weird song in the background. The only words I could use to describe are that it made the made song feel crispy like you were frying something behind it. I thought "maybe the other songs aren't as bad", and I was right, nevertheless there was still the same sound in the background that would be strange in an opening. (Here are some of the songs I listened to 1, 2, 3 )I was stressed, yet again, "what am I going to do now". 

I did just like any teen in this situation will do, and opened Tik Tok to forget my problems for a few minutes. After scrolling for a while, a classical music artist came up in my For You Page promoting his new song. I had actually started to listen to a few classical music playlists recently, so this caught my attention, in a result I rapidly went to take a listen. As soon as the song finished a solution came into my head, "what if instead of using old romantic jazz, we use classical music". It would have the same old-fashioned feel, but just with a different song. I was ecstatic, I knew 100% that most well-known classical music songs are published well before the 1920s before some even before the 1900s. I basically ran to Spotify to search for another and hopefully the last playlist that would be able to give me song options. 

Luckily I quickly found I playlist with more than 200 songs under tittles romantic classical songs. I was hyped. I clicked play and the first song that played was perfect for the opening(which became our first choice). I listened to a few more just to have a list when I show my partner the hidden gems I found. 

Right now I and my partner have Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 13, TH. 24 "Winter Reveries" and The Stone Flower Symphonic Suite, Op. 118, Wedding Suite, as our choices. We doubled check they were public domain. We finally got a song.  

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What's the set going to look like

 As we continue brainstorming for ideas for the mise-en-scene details of the film opening, we are basically done with the props and overall set of the film. My partner and I mostly know everything we want to include in our film opening. All of the things that we want to put would reveal things about the character, like their mental state, love, etc. 

The opening would be filmed in a house, specifically in the living room with some shots from the kitchen. The props would serve the purpose to keep the audience engage and looking at everything presented to them, or having to re-watch the whole thing to get the small details.  

                                                  

Some of the first props designs we thought of were a record player and an old phone, like the ones with the wire. My partner actually ones these things (the phone isn't like the one in the photo but instead of turning to put the numbers, it has a keypad and it's green). These props would help build the personality of our main character. The objects would radiate an old-fashioned vibe, making it seem as though the film happens in current times, the man is still stuck in old times and loves to reminisce about his life in the past. Both of these props the man would be using throughout the film, given that most of the time there would be music playing and the man will get a phone call. 

 

Another background prop we are planning in incorporated is roses. These roses would represent the couple, so two roses one for the guy and one for the woman would be placed in a vase. To further represent them one of the roses would be alive and the other one is dead. This detail wouldn't overshadow any big plot details given that this information is going to be revealed in the opening. Nevertheless, it would make the audience pay more attention to the small details. 

One key mise-en-scene choice we were set on from the start, was making the house(so the living room and the kitchen) appear as they haven't been cleaned in a while. We wanted the mess of the house to connect to the mental state of the man. Our thought process was, the man isn't well mentally (clearly), and the house is uncleaned, a mess just like the man's brain. One of the film backgrounds would be the kitchen, so we wanted to have some dirty dishes in the sink, maybe an unfinished meal on the table, or a spilled liquid. This detail also would add to the sense that the man is basically lost without his woman, can't even clean his own house.

One last thing we are sure we want to add to the set design would be some family portraits around the walls. Using these will add to the sense that this once was a family full of love, that was always together. Additionally, the family portraits would be used to further introduce the wife and the son, who would later call his dad in the opening. These plus the song we plan on using will tell the audience that the man truly loves his family. This vibe would contrast the action of the man (killing his wife), which would build some mystery to the film, making the audience think, what is wrong with the man?  

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Storyboards

 What's up guys, so this week has been full of planning for the details of the opening.  For example, my partner and I  have already settled on a color pallet for the movie, the costumes, the set, and even the details of the set design. So many little things we are starting to plan to place around the set  

Our film opening will follow a middle-aged man who killed his beloved wife. The man truly loved his wife, so it was weird that he would do such a thing to his wife. Though the man is self-aware he caused this pain to himself, he still isn't able to fully wrap his head around what happened. The man even likes to remember her, in her best, with her pretty dress and perfect hair, how they danced all of their afternoons listening to old tunes from their record player. 

The movie opening will start just a few days after the man killed his wife, the house is starting to look dirty and unkempt, as the dirty plates on the kitchen table and dirt on the floor. Through this mess, the man is seen dancing with his imaginary wife in the living room. They look like a lovely couple, holding each other close. They are slow dancing to the song, moving in sync with the music. While they are dancing we will also show various things throughout the house that could reveal more about the couple, like some flowers and a family portrait. Though throughout this whole segment we plan on not showing the woman's face, so it adds more mystery to the film and also hints to the audience that she isn't there. 

After almost a minute of dancing, the man is going to get an unexpected phone call from his son. The son knew about what happened to his mom, but not actually. He knows she died and that his dad isn't okay with this event, but he doesn't know what caused the death of his mom. So, the son is calling to let the dad know that he is coming to visit soon, to be with him through these hard times. While the son is finishing talking to the dad, we are planning to slowly zoom into the basement door (which wouldn't be an actual basement given that they are no basements in Florida), to create further suspense. The basement door will represent where the wife was killed, though we wouldn't straight up to reveal that to the audience given that it's too easy. So we plan on the man to look at the door at the last few seconds of the opening and then we do an eyeliner match to introduce this idea. This is where the opening will end, and it will fade to black to show the title. 

There is still some small detail that will play a big role in overshadowing the plot, in the opening we are going to have to plan out, though I am very excited to do so. 

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Casting

 Alright, so you can’t do a movie without characters, except if it’s just a montage of different nature shots and nothing else but that’s very boring and has no real purpose.

Our movie's main character is a middle-aged couple with their son/daughter, though who we need to cast for would be for the couple given that the only thing we’ll see if the son would be his voice.  Indifference, to some opening, I have seen we have decided to use adults instead of teenagers for the opening given that it will give it a more realistic look. Barely any teenagers have the look that we are looking for, so we had to increase the age limit. 

We have decided to look for couples that we know can play the part. Someone who we would be comfortable asking to participate. We have deceived that my parents and my parent's best friends as an option for this role. Both of them would be good for the role given that they fit the idea that we have for our opening. Specifically, it would be better if we could get my orients best friends because of their height difference. 

Throughout the opening the face of the woman isn’t supposed to be seen, given that she is supposed to be a flashback/ a component of the man's imagination. To tell the audience that she isn’t actually there we plan on not showing her face. This will also add mystery to the whole opening because people would be thinking, Why can’t we see her face? Who is she? which is someone thing we are trying to give off with our opening.  Having a short woman and a taller man is easier to do this given that she can hide her face.

My mom is already super invested in the project so much so that she is already asking me about the costumes designs (which we are starting to plan), how is her hair going to look, the scenery, and almost every detail of the opening  

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