Project Components

All components of the project are here! The video, print, and SMS components of my film Echo of the Trees! Enjoy!

Film and Postcard link: GOOGLE DRIVE

Social Media link: Instagram @echoofthetrees

Critical Reflection

My short film Echo of the Trees is a horror film that triggers the fear of being lost. It tells a story about a boy who initially leaves his house in a forest with his elder sister who needs to take a few reference pictures for her artwork. As they traverse through the greenery, they settle down for a bit before the boy realizes his keychain has fallen off his bag at some point in time. He signals his sister before leaving to retrace his steps. He eventually finds this keychain lying on the ground before he hears something from his walkie-talkie in his pocket: it’s his sister calling him back, but before he can answer properly, the signal cuts off. He begins his journey back to where his sister is, waiting for him. After a bit of walking, something feels strange. He keeps seeing the same trees, the same big rocks, same obstacles. At first, he shrugs it off, thinking it is just what the forest is like. It’s filled with trees and rocks. The boy keeps on going, his walk turning into a sprint. The film continues on to represent this “running in a circle” feeling and it ends with the character’s desperate attempt to find a way out of him giving up and stopping.

This film is meant to represent the sense of unfamiliarity in an environment or situation. This is mostly developed to evoke this fear of being lost, but could also be interpreted as a metaphor for being unable to exactly figure out what to do in new situations without assistance– which could make it feel as if one is continuously walking in circles with no progress. At some point, the boy seemingly embodies a feeling of anxiousness, represented by the fast-paced clips near the second half of the film. The audience is meant to sympathize with the boy, sharing the same feeling of anxiety. The young appearance of the actor also extends this sympathy as he is merely a child with an extreme limitation on life experience. Children are viewed as one who needs the most guidance in comparison to many other age groups, compared to the targeted audience. I also believed that the casting of a child as the main character in the horror genre of films was not too prevalent as many of these films feature teenager or adult characters for example The Elevator, which features a woman.

Throughout producing this film, many drastic changes were made until its final product. The original plot and plans for the short film were changed the most. It started off to be a Drama and Thriller of a morally gray character’s toxic relationship with her boyfriend, but I had writer’s block trying to conjure up ideas on how I would expand on this idea. It then became the idea of a film where the main character is exploring the forest and comes across something that seems very displaced. They embark on a journey that eventually turns out to be dangerous to uncover the mysteries behind the item, but the end reveals that it was all just a scheme to kill the main character out of revenge by the close friend, finding that this is the best way to cover up the murder as it could be written off as an accident. I couldn’t come up with a good way to execute the film even though I really liked the idea, so I had to come up with something else. 

The beginning of making this specific plot of getting lost would be when I came up with the idea of a character who unintentionally strays away from his friends during a camping trip and enters some abandoned building out of curiosity, which he ends up getting lost in as all the hallways and rooms seemed to have been looping… everything looks the same. The few changes I made from this plan were the cast due to the inconvenient schedules of my planned actors as well as the setting, since abandoned buildings (urban exploration) are quite dangerous in themselves and would be quite difficult to pinpoint any that would be rid of danger, just as seen in the following storyboard:

I eventually came up with this plan of a young boy getting lost in the forest. Yes, it is much simpler than the other few ideas, and though I wanted to work with one of those other ideas, especially the second idea, I decided that I should make the rational decision of sticking with a simpler plot because though I was many weeks into starting this project, I still had not come up with a thorough plan for the revenge story. It’s not easy to sit down with these ideas and brainstorm good ideas when all my ideas really just come to me in bursts of random times.

Either way, I still liked this plot enough to be able to film it. I actually really enjoyed finding a suitable font for this film too. I think picking out elements of the film for branding really makes me feel like I am in control. Though I am actually in control of the entire project, I felt a bit lost until the branding, since by this point I had at least a reference on which to base the elements. The font I chose is called Stackz. This text is bold, slightly blurred, and distorted with parts of the letters missing. I chose a distorted font since I saw many horror films that had this feature. From what I saw, if the thumbnail does not seem creepy or eerie enough, the font will signify to the viewer its genre. Some examples I referenced:

This font as a whole subtly represents the main character’s distorted perception of the setting. It sets a very eerie tone, which the film demonstrates. I incorporated a certain palette of colors on social media too, like this post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5lqycHu7D1enXNsN4aeRG4co95lAYnFNCrp8U0/. It demonstrated to viewers what exactly the film would look like, with its main colors being deep greens and browns with subtle hints of blues from the sky and white from the character’s shirt. Other promotional posts like https://www.instagram.com/p/C5hsKsvtggjIyLuX9ul9-aHRRQln_KjSH881yY0/, https://www.instagram.com/p/C5ZmLPsuvfOYiiLAf3w7ps3yQXAbeSC_dPJTtU0/, https://www.instagram.com/p/C5l_JDMOH11UTtVZRTRtyNySTL92uOlKHj6jN00/ all demonstrate this color pattern (as well as the postcard). The social media engages with the audience via countdown stickers, uploads of bloopers, and behind-the-scenes posts which make the viewers feel connected to the production overall. I thought this project was quite fun and heavily challenged my creativity. I also wish to revisit my second story idea for a future project though.

My Final Updates

I wish I was lying when I said I went through a LOT throughout the project. Issues with plot development, casting, filming, technical issues... all of the above. I kept changing my idea for the film because I couldn't fully develop plans for other ideas, my planned actors did not have a convenient time to film, and... my laptop died (I got a new one a week ago). Oh, and my phone broke as I was editing. Not sure why, but when I went to retrieve some of my audio and video files, my entire phone froze out of nowhere. This was a couple of days ago. I was about halfway through editing by this time. Until literally TODAY, the due date, when my sister fixed it with her totally professional technician skills (I didn't have enough days left to get it properly fixed at a shop, so I believed that I had to just get through the rest of the editing with a lot of compromises... until today). I just need to get my critical reflection done now, which I already made a small bullet point list of what to write about and include while I was waiting for my files to import for editing a while ago.

By the way, I was editing on Adobe After Effects. I really like this editing program, though it is not really meant for videos that do not have a lot of graphics. Still was fun to use though, I love this program.

Screencap of me halfway through editing

I wish I finished filming so much earlier. I wanted to put more effort into editing. The next time I do a project like this, I have to plan more meticulously. I have to stop waiting around and make decisions to ensure I stay absolutely within the plan.

Postcard update!

I'm thinking of putting the release of the short film on the postcard to be at/during:

https://www.orlandointernationalfilmfestival.org/youth-day

I'm currently putting together the postcard and I just got the back done:

I believe that should be all the information I need to put:

- Credits

- Title

- Date, Location

- Contact/Social Media

... and of course a shot of the main character in the film. He's wearing a pretty interesting expression here, looking somewhat confused and surprised, but it's not over the top. Being over the top may catch the attention of anyone who holds the card, but it doesn't fit the character himself, so I just kept this expression.

This is the front of the postcard. I fixed the coloring to match the back image, but it was too dark so I fixed it to be a bit lighter. I then added the text, making the blending mode color-dodge, and then duplicating it since it wasn't bright enough to see. I duplicated it twice, then blurred one of the layers so it looked like it was glowing because I thought it became too bright and needed some sort of other "pizzazz" to it. I lastly added vignette to it to really put the focus on the character and title.

More Changes and Updates

SMS

I made a social media account a while ago for my film, an Instagram account @echoofthetrees.

I've made some posts already, like Meet the Actors in a story highlight and some posts of bloopers/BTS as well as an introduction post to the film.

Title

My original title idea was Arboreal Echos, but it didn't really make sense considering the definition of "arboreal" and its lack of relevancy to the film's content. "Echo of the Trees" represents the "echo" of the repeating pathway over and over again. "Echo" is typically used in an auditory sense, so I will make sure the sound/foley in the film is decently prominent.

Editing

Copyright Free music I found that suits the film: 

Dark Ambient Music by Breaking Copyright 

Tubular Bells by Torin

Group Meeting #2

 We had another group meeting today. I was seeking help with my postcard composition since I should be starting it already. I had the rough idea of having the front be a low angle of the main character standing in the center (lower half of the postcard) while the trees look super tall and a bit cramped, which will make the setting feel very intimidating and uncomfortable (which is what I am aiming for). The image will be zoomed out a bit to use the trees as a leading line to the title above the character.

I wanted to have the character facing away from the camera (back shot) but I wasn't sure if it was too disengaging. I want to put the focus on the setting a bit more though, so I think this would work. Otherwise, I'll just go take another shot of the character facing forward to see which feels better.

The back of the postcard would be split in half. Half is an image of the keychain and the other half is information.

My group seemed to approve my rough draft for this so I most likely will go with this.

I contributed to my group by offering a title idea of "Intertwined Fate" for one of my group members seeking a title change as well as suggestions to make changes on a group member's postcard and another member's thumbnail.

Some "Little" Emergency

So my laptop kind of died. Had it since 2017... it did decent while it was alive. But that means I don't have anything to edit on. I'd prefer not to edit on my phone since it would take thrice as long to edit with a new program... also I have a lack of storage space on my pathetic 64 GB iPhone that has too much of nothing on it. I barely have images and videos on my phone aside from filming and I lack games or anything on my phone. Not sure what it is with these iPhones and their lack of usable storage... the rest of the computers at home belonging to my family are all on the older side and lag too much or have a major lack of storage to edit... or both. Which was what my laptop was, but oh well. I also have a Mac, but I edited my previous portfolio project on it... and it was a big mess. Too much lag. Too many crashes. Too many problems.

I suppose it is time for a new laptop. Need to do my laptop research fast and buy one soon since I want to start editing what I have so far first. I wanna put together what I have and see what I need to re-film or if I want to change future shots.

Filming...

 We got through half of the filming... well, almost half.

I thought the place we filmed was really nice. I hoped for a bit more trees but since I dragged my family along in this I didn't want to be picky. I just had to find the perfect camera angles.

Here's a short video I took that I likely won't use since its duration is very short (and my sister walked in), but it captures how most of the area looked:

We filmed for about 2 hours. And yes, it was difficult to film with an actor like my brother. But I had to be patient. We're going back there next week to finish filming.

I also got some video that I could publish to the film's social media page... which I still need to make.

The weather was also very nice. Cooler than I expected, though still a bit warm.

I'd also like to add that I underestimated how difficult it was to instruct someone efficiently how to film (certain camera angles, movements) to someone who does not have any film experience... there was a lot of patience taken up today. It was fun overall.

Filming... Tomorrow.

 So we start filming tomorrow. Finally. I wanted to get this part done sooner but I was building my filming schedule around my actors' schedules. Which did not go as planned...

There were a couple issues with my initial planned actors so I had to make a deal with my siblings to help me instead since my other friends/options were unavailable since they were on vacation somewhere else.

I wanted the main character to be my little sister who's 13 since my brother is only 10 and has listening issues. Not that there's any abnormal neurological issue with him or anything. Maybe he does, but he's undiagnosed. The point is he can't listen to instructions. Except the thing is, he ended up being the main character. I had to think about it for a bit. I think it makes sense (a little bit) that he is. The main character gets lost and a child at my brother's age-- it makes sense for him to get lost. By replacing the actor and therefore character to be younger, it may increase the fear that is supposed to be evoked. Being lost is a scary thing to many. Being lost where there is a lack of people to communicate with is scary to many. That's why I chose a remote-looking area with a lack of people. Being lost in an unfamiliar place as a child is scary. Children are unaware of many dangers and being lost in an unfamiliar area alone with little to no survival skills due to their young age and naive nature... yes, I think it'll work out.

We're going to film at Markham Park. Props I'm bringing are: 2 backpacks, my cat keychain, and a camera. The secondary character will be played by me and this character traveled into the woody area to take pictures for... art references. It's not very relevant to the story, so I'll probably leave this information  out. So yeah, a camera. I'll also be bringing a tripod. That's about it.

Depth to the Story

My idea for the story is a bit more concrete now that I have the keychain prop so here it is:

The main character and his friend would go hiking on a trail for some pictures that the friend needed. On the way up, the main character drops this keychain and does not realize until they reach their spot. The friend will already be setting up so the main character suggests that he'll retrace the steps on his own, thinking it wouldn't take long to grab the keychain. This is how the two end up separating. 

As the main character retraces his steps, he gets a little distracted as he eyes some sticks and rocks, which he then bends down to shape an outline of a cat. He then hears a faint chime of a bell. It's off the trail they were following by a bit, however. He doesn't think much of it and follows the noise. He ends up finding the keychain and picks it up, beginning his walk back. He passes by the little formation he created, keeping his pace walking back. After walking a bit, he passes it again. He keeps walking, but again does he see the formation. He receives a call from the friend, who tells him to quickly come back since they got all the pictures they needed and it's getting dark. He tries to answer back but is cut off by the lack of signal. It's still very much afternoon, though. Perhaps his friend was just being sarcastic. Confused, he takes a different route, and he eventually sees the formation again. He starts panicking here, picking up the pace.

I hadn't mentioned it earlier, but the trail to the spot for the pictures involved having to move some leaves/bush in the way, so eventually as the main character is trying to find his way he finally finds the spot and believes he's out of the loop. It feels like a different route, feeling like he was finally on the way back. But alas he end up at the formation he made earlier again.

An Addition

 I was thinking of how the main character would actually get lost. I wanted to be able to include some sort of prop that will trigger (not sure of that is a good word to use) one of the five senses that will distract the main character to let him wander off. I thought utilizing sound would be the best fit, a sound that would catch his attention. The idea of a bell suddenly came to mind and I then thought of using this keychain I had with a bell on it. Looks something like this:

I thought this would be the best choice (triggering hearing) since the visuals are too packed with the trees and natural content. I wanted the sense to be something the audience could experience directly and not implied through reactions like taste, and I thought touch was a bit tricky to do. The setting is quiet enough for the chime of a little bell, so overall I think this idea would work.

Visions for Filming and Editing

Before I start filming next week, I was thinking of what kind of shots I really want to include. I was already making a new storyboard for the change of settings but I felt there wasn't much to change from the original since the concept is still the same. I might change it up a little to let the story have more depth, but that is about it. The shots I speak of are of those that establish the setting or atmosphere, like capturing the trees or whatnot. I think this piece that I referenced in an earlier post as research may help due to part of its setting being in nature: 

I believe the ominous tone the forest-y scenes is what I'm looking for. The panning medium shot (which also tilted down first) of the girl walking by is likely a shot I'd use, for example. I like the lighting and foley in the film, so I'll use this piece for inspiration when I need it while editing or shooting. Speaking of foley, since there's not much dialogue in my short film, I would need to focus a lot on producing foley after filming.

CHANGE OF PLANS.

Nothing too major to be changed, just the setting. The abandoned building setting was a bit of a stretch... it's rather dangerous to explore a real one and a bit difficult to find somewhere to set a scene like this up... so a forest-y area, something like a hiking trail, would work instead. It's a place people can get lost in pretty easily as well, so it works out.

Instead of hallways, doors, and rooms, it'll just be trees, trees, and more trees. As well as bushes, rocks, etc. Instead of granola bar, I might just have the character create a little rock structure to mark their place. The entrance/exit will be a bush of a sort. I might try Markham Park for the setting. My actor for the short film is pretty familiar with forest-y places like this, so I could also have a talk with him for any other ideas.

Something like this would be pretty suitable:

Final Idea

It seems my idea has changed yet again. I feel my story writing was going a bit too slow for my complex ideas so I changed to something a bit more simple. Using the short films I watched (mentioned in an earlier post), I came up with the idea of a character getting lost. Here, I made a storyboard for you to decipher:

It's very... rough I'd say...

The main character strays away from their friends and finds an abandoned building to irresponsibly explore and eventually they wound up in a strange place that seems normal but as time passes the character realizes something it wrong and they cannot find an exit. It ends with the character thinking that they found the exit but it just leads back to the place they were circling around the whole time.

Print Component Research

It's time for another research post...

Taking a break from story ideas, I have to tend to the print component of my production for a bit. I'll start this component as I'm editing and it shouldn't take too much time to put together if I plan things properly. While planning it, I have to take in consideration any sort of story symbolism and incorporate a bit to the postcard to make it engaging and meaningful to the film itself as I put together the graphics.

To the research:

I picked out two postcards that I thought was pretty interesting. For this first one, the title is pretty visible and readable with the white text on top of the desaturated and darker colors of purple and green. I find this nice that it stands out since I sometimes have to strain my eyes trying to read certain text when the text is any closer to the background colors (I may be exaggerating a bit, but my eyes really aren't very good, and I want to make sure people who don't have perfect vision can actually see the graphics). The overall postcard is very dynamic with the colors and shapes, which really seems to match the short's overall tone and style. The shapes and expressions of the characters shown also allows the audience to make assumptions about the film, for example how the character on the left is depicted with very round and simplistic features with a very happy open smile on his face which the audience can assume that he may be a very light-hearted, positive, and even comedic character to the film. The middle character possesses sharper features depicting an almost sinister smile with very narrow eyes and mouth, in which the audience may assume that he could be the antagonist. The purple lady on the left seems sweet, possessing rounder features like the left-most character. The postcard also leaves a decent amount of white space on the bottom of the card for the nominations as well as the website and producer in the middle. I really like the layout and choice of colors (and shapes, in the case that it's very cartoony) and will keep this in mind while I plan my postcard. Though my chosen genre and this postcard's genre is different, the kind of information that is depicted should be around the same.

This postcard... a lot is going on. It's eye-catching. The woman in the front is likely the main character as she is depicted to be in the front of all other characters, facing forward and confident (though being confident isn't really a feature all main characters have, it can be assumed that this particular character is). The postcard involves features that help the viewer guess what the film could be about. I like that the title is very large and obvious as well. Overall, this piece is very enticing and draws in the attention of those picking up the postcard almost immediately. One could guess that this film is a thriller by the way the overall tone depicted by the colors, angle of cars and positioning/poses of the characters, etc. The fog in the back also helps add depth and overall very closely depicts something that could keep their viewers on their toes...

An Update of Sorts

 As you know very well, can't keep up with any sort of schedule I make. Though I try my best to do so, ideas don't come easily or when I need them. They're spontaneous and could happen at the very last moment. It's inconvenient to work with on my own especially when I'm not satisfied with the work/idea. So where am I going with this? An update on my timeline of course...

I actually came up with a solid idea which took... 4 weeks... but I need a schedule to work off of now, since my last one won't work (at least until the spring break, when I can film since that's the only time for when my actors are available).

Now on Week 5, I should finish revising the idea and have a storyboard by Wednesday. I need to come up with a title and make a SMS page for the production by then as well. The rest of the week is to start creating the mise-en-scene elements that must be incorporated and ensure that the places we film will be ready by the time spring break (Week 7) rolls around. I need the filming process to be as smooth as possible so I can transition into editing by Week 8 and finish at the same week. And when I'm not editing during Week 8, I should be making the print component. All throughout the weeks after I set up the SMS account, I will be posting...

Also I'm thinking blue tones for the film. It's cold and lonely, which depicts the separation of the two characters (emotionally, they disconnected) at least in the view of the victim.

Something like this:

A Vision

 Okay so, my ideas have been changing maybe just a tad bit. It's difficult to stay within an idea without wanting to incorporate other things- but then it ends up straying quite far from the original and revised ideas as well as other scrapped ideas, etc. Or usually I end up going in a circle where I have an idea, stray really really far, and still somehow end up close to where it started. It's inconvenient, but my picky self couldn't settle on an idea until that idea truly hits. Like finding a soulmate but with an idea. But unfortunately that hasn't happened yet and my previous idea wasn't satisfactory enough to be developed any further. I think I might be developing my ideas a little backwards though, in a way.

In this case now, the story idea still ends with a death. Or two. But is it a physical death or a psychological one? Or a metaphorical death? Well. I'm not too sure yet.

Before I came up with the one I want to explain I came up with a different idea where the friend character is painting a piece that becomes their 'ultimate' work in the way that it's their final work, but with a sort of secret hidden in the painting. The main character has gone missing for a week by the time the main character finds the unfinished painting and figures that there's something eerie about the painting. The symbolism within the painting resembles death. It's not too prominent of a feature to the regular eye, but a closer look and some art history knowledge would put everything together (but I thought this idea made the target audience a too niche for my liking, so I have this idea set aside). The ending will reveal the missing friend who murders the main character to use their blood as the final incorporation to the painting.  The painting in a way represents the previous sins of the character in which they decided to incorporate both the blood of the resented figures in their life as well as the (the only) loved figure of their life. 

I felt like the middle of the idea might be a bit boring and I wanted to make a different story idea.

I have an idea for the film that I really want to do though. The sort of idea that isn't really part of story context but rather what I want the film to look like. Enough with what I'm trying to explain- now to explaining:

I want the film to incorporate a montage. It'll be like a VHS, similar to The Backrooms (Found Footage)

This means the setting will be when VHS was used, of course. It would only make sense. I wanted to capture like a low quality and eerie sort of video, which VHS are perfect for. The rewinding, fast forward, pause, and the overall visual effects have been used in many horror media forms for an uncomfortable and intense feeling.

 Another instance VHS is depicted to be eerie is the usage of VHS in the game Amanda the Adventure, a horror game. Though not the genre I'm particularly aiming for, the eerie and uncomfortable feeling is something I am aiming for.

In the most basic way of explaining, the montage will be like a collection of primary sources that reveal the main character's crime. The film will show only two characters, the main character and the friend. It'll start with simple, cute, and friendly interactions with the two characters interacting with a certain object (basically, the montage will show different sentimental objects and the two characters interacting with it). Multiple objects are incorporated and the content of their interactions will grow to be concerning. Not violent though, just uncomfortable. There will be certain cuts to the current timeline sometime in between the montage to depict that someone is actually watching the tapes, not just to provide context for the audience. The montage will end by around the 3 minute mark (including cuts). By now the audience will already understand who the person watching is by the little peeks from the cuts (it's the victim- honestly the victim would be more like the main character but they're both the main character depending how you look at it). The perpetrator walks into the room, which the audience will then understand that it's a sort of cage, metaphorically. The point is, the victim can't leave. 

The film will depict the development of an obsessive kind of love, though not particularly romantic, it's possessive to the point where freedom is restricted. 

It'll end with a connection back to when things were more innocent.

This idea definitely needs more refining but it definitely has more content than my other ideas. 

Group Meeting #1

Met in a group today to talk about our project progress today. I took this opportunity to get film recommendations from my group that would help me with my writing as well as any feedback of what I had so far. For a while, I was unsure of if my idea was too cliché or uninteresting at first, so I wanted to get some sort of outside opinion on it before I used my energy to develop an idea that wasn't even interesting. I think that is most important to me (making it interesting) than anything else. 

I want to pull in the audience and lock them in until we're finished. 

What I asked for my group:

- I explained my idea, then asked if it's too much of a basic idea

- Recommendations to help me with the plot, like how to execute the betrayal aspect

I haven't gone too far with my project, so honestly there wasn't much for me to ask for more. These are for me to decide and explore on my own and I think it challenges my creativity a lot and I honestly really need that.

Feedback I received:

- It's an interesting idea but it'll depend on how I execute my idea to determine whether it'll be too basic or not

- Watch The Prestige (2006), directed by Christopher Nolan

- Watch Earth to Echo (2014), directed by Dave Green

- Nimona

I think that Christopher Nolan films overall are great at executing interesting plots, so I think after my recommended films I should go see the other Christopher Nolan movies to research.

I should have the time this week to watch all my recommendations and research, focusing a lot on my project this week, since I completed homework for my other classes early on Friday and the weekend to really focus on my project since I have to catch up. I'm quite a bit behind on my project as many people has already developed a pretty solid plot (which I lack...). I also NEED to start my social media postings this week, which means that I need to conjure up a plot and name my short film very soon. 

Here is my to-do this week (Monday, 4th, to Sunday, 10th):

- Watch recommendations, research/analyze

- Develop a plot

- Find a setting to film

- Name the film

- Develop storyboard

- Start social media

- Gather my actors and finalize filming schedule

- Start developing a script

A lot to do, but it's the consequences of my lack of ability to think of an idea I like in a normal period of time. Like, 3 weeks is plenty of time to come up with something. This is the FOURTH week and I barely developed an idea. I don't feel bad or anything though, it's not like it's affecting anyone else in particular anyway. It's just my problem, one that I started and one I must resolve on my own (with the suggestions from others, of course. I'd never reject listening to criticisms and suggestions.

All I have to do is "lock in" and I should be able to get everything done.

My group!

I've Got an Idea...

Here’s some kind of premise I came up with:

With a close friend, the main character stumbles upon a mysterious (it’s more like misplaced, I’m aiming for a setting like an abandoned area or forest-y area) object which sets them into a curious little investigation. They eventually piece together certain horrific crimes, but something doesn’t seem quite right. The close friend gets caught in a risky situation (or disappears) which the main character tries to tend to, all while trying to fend for themself, alone.

Ending of this idea goes something like this:

• The main character finds out that the close friend set this up to get the main character killed

• The close friend also risked their own life setting this up, with no particular escape plan of their own from when the murder is complete (not that they forgot, they just didn’t care, just wanted the main character gone)

• Motives for the close friend probably won’t get revealed (based on the maximum length of the short film) but: the close friend has resented the main character for ‘betraying’ them once before. This is rooted mostly through jealousy. The friend was aiming for the one (specific) thing that they were nearly able to obtain (as a necessity to continue to live, something like a hefty scholarship that would help them lift a lot of financial burden. Like a competition with that scholarship as a reward. The close friend and the main character both share the same interest, but the main character is known to be “better” and has won many similar awards, while the friend character, though desperate, was turned down to most of them. But the skill level wasn’t too different. The close friend just thinks the main character is lucky. So does the main character. The close friend, in this competition, finally has a chance to win, and it’s the only one that they really need. But the main character never informed this close friend that they were participating. Of course, our main character won this award, which set off the close friend. The close friend won’t be able to afford going to college at all. It’s really too late for anything else. With other financial burdens to tend to, the close friend really cannot have the weight of academic burden on them, but it’s all they ever wanted. To go to school for a higher education, obtain a career that will improve their family’s life at home.

I might be developing the close friend character a bit too much while not developing the main character at all, but motives are important. To me, at least, I need to know how to write the character by understanding what kind of situation they are going through to develop their personality and the sort of micro-actions they take.

I haven’t been able to really conjure up a story idea until now, which honestly came to me in a dream just now (from my evening nap), which I thought was super interesting. Well I don’t remember a lot of it, but I remember a couple points of what was happening. My POV was the close friend, but I don’t remember setting everything up, just experiencing the investigation. It wasn’t really ‘me’ in the dream.

This is just a little idea of course, I will tweak whatever I need to by Tuesday. 

The overall vibe of the film: 

May change, may not change later, not sure yet but it's pretty decent for the feeling I was going for.

Social Media Research

 In my last post, I chose a couple short films that would fit for my project and I briefly analyzed it. Now, I will review its social media presence to help conjure ideas for the social media component of my project.

The Vision, by CoyoteStudios:

https://www.instagram.com/coyotestudios1?igsh=d2txdmM4b3RtdnY4

Tool: Instagram

The posts within this account are mostly consisted of teasers and seemingly behind-the-scenes clips of the settings, whichI would like to incorporate in my own account as well, These teasers art very short video clips of a few seconds or just a collection of images depicting the title in one along with the contents being different shots from the production The plot is not obvious within these posts and for the most part it just attracts viewers based on the eerie images The whole account is dedicated to their brand of producing mystery and thriller short films with a similar pattern in color scheme, with dark browns, dark blues, and overall a very dull and eerie feeling to them.The posts have a pattern in which there are collections of teasers and BTS. They also add to their stories and keep some highlighted. I will incorporate something similar to this in terms of color scheme, keeping up a consistent brand (color). I also like the idea of collections of images in one slide of the post (though it does not appear often, as much of the posts' slides are just single shots from the production), which provides an idea of what may be going on in the short film, but nothing can be confirmed until the viewer watches it, which is a really interesting method to draw the audience to the production.

https://www.facebook.com/TrueIntentProductions

Whittling Away, by True Intent Productions:

Tool: Facebook

I believe that the general audience they are targeting are on the older side, which is why Facebook may have been chosen for their content. These posts reveal their release dates through images and teasers through short clips, as well as the accomplishments of their productions like where it has been shown, etc. They also incorporate what seems to be their stance or opinions about certain topics as depicted in their support for Muslims and fight against climate change. I think that this may be able to draw in certain viewers/audience that choose to check out the productions after coming across their support posts. This is a pretty good method to attract viewers and I believe this fits their brand name as well, which is "True Intent", indicating a genuine intention. They also produce documentaries for similar topics, further defining their goals. I'm not sure if this is the kind of profile I am looking to create, though. I definitely think that this method of postings are a reflection of their brand, which I believe is quite effective, but this specific method is not what I am aiming for.

https://x.com/zephyr_zen?s=21

(KISMET) A Short Detective Thriller, by Zypher Entertainment

Tool: Twitter (X)

The content of this account is consisted of a lot of retweets, which can quickly share on their followers' timelines about the interests of the account. This account provides showing or film festival dates and releases, as well as both video (around 40 seconds) and image teasers as well as thumbnails of their productions with a description that contains a link to YouTube to watch the production.Overall the account is quite interactive with their followers, replying or comments with enthusiasm and at times even utilizing GIFs to express themselves. They also post their TOP 10s and such, which people tend to stop and read through to see if their favorite production made the list. I think the overall interaction with the audience was really helpful in promoting their brand, especially as everything they post are about films or short films.They also feature "Than you" posts and regular "Check-out our productions!" posts, which when it appears on a user's timeline, will help attract said user to their productions.I definitely will use their tactic to interact more with the audience, trying to promote my production all while maintaining my brand of a mystery genre production account.

Developing Other Ideas

    After a while of pondering, I realized I simply am not able to develop a story based on a (toxic) relationship. Though these situations and concepts are typically very interesting to others, I am not able to connect or really resonate fully with anything involving drama, romance, or something similar to these genres (though last year's project for my film opening was romance-based. I did struggle then with the writing). 

    I found myself more interested in the mystery and psychological genres while exploring short film examples and I came across some mystery films that made me realize I wanted to do exactly that. Mysteries are also good at engaging the audience, keeping the audience thinking and on their toes. I originally wanted to incorporate a morally gray main character to engage the audience, but mystery can do the same. I'm not too sure how to incorporate a morally gray character this way. I think I could incorporate the ambiguous nature of the main character, but it just cannot be the focus of the film as I was planning for my first idea.

    A good mystery typically involves a shocking crime with a crime solver and a suspenseful plot. These are known to be quite realistic (referring to the way characters would act as well as the crime itself, though it may vary depending on the narrative world).

    Some short film examples I thought may give me inspiration to write are as follows: 

 (A Short Detective Thriller)

- This piece is quite complex for me to pick apart upon my first watch, but after a couple more viewings I was able to understand. I like how the lighting was very dark and almost uncomfortable throughout the production, with a lack of sun to represent the lack of positive emotions, keeping the production's mood very dull and depressing to match the case that the detective cracks.

 (The Vision)

- This suspense kept me on the edge of my seat. There were so many questions that came up throughout the production, not that it was particularly confusing or difficult to understand the (well it was, but it was as if we were put in the character's shoes, especially being in a limited 3rd person point of view and not being able to see what truly is going on until the ending came up), but it was mostly the suspense keeping me engaged until the resolution was revealed.

 (Whittling Away)

- I really enjoyed how suspenseful the plot was, leading the audience to believe that something bad had happened to the daughter, just as her father was panicking. It was really interesting to me how they were able to completely make me think a certain way and make assumptions which were entirely wrong just by incorporating clips that conceal a bit more context. 

 (MISSING)

- I liked the mood set for this production with the color. It is dark and provokes peoples fears of the unknown, and it especially becomes prominent over the course of the production as it seems like the setting changed from afternoon or evening to dusk and night. The overall production is very eerie, especially with the incorporation of the crackling radio and the mysterious figures flying around and finally the sudden disappearance of our protagonist in front of our very eyes.

I'm also thinking of using these productions for my social media research, which will be discussed in the next post. 

Building a Story (iii)

Here are some characters I am planning to use (or maybe not, it's just to choose from)

Sabotage is essentially preventing one from success.

MC: Controlling, manipulative; genuinely for LI's own good because of the way LI is

Love Interest: Gullible but kind, falls for tricks and such (catches on late, or doesn't at all)

Sabotage 1: Lie about the character

Sabotage 2: Expose the character

Sabotage 3: Destroy something of importance of character

Sabotage 4: Manipulating the character to do something bad (illegal, immoral)

Sabotage is to get the LI to stray away from those characters, being that they are harmful to them but they are still unaware of the damage, which MC notices.

This is all for story idea 1, I am planning to make an outline of this but if it doesn't turn out well I must create a few more ideas or outlines. 

Additionally, for this particular idea of sabotage, I'm thinking of using a game, Yandere Simulator, for some of their sabotage ideas for inspiration. Though not entirely of course, especially since their main character is more evil than I am creating.

Building a Story (ii)

So here is a general story idea (which I'm not sure if I will introduce another idea to choose between, but I labeled it as #1 just in case):

I still have more to elaborate on this of course, as you can see. This is a general idea or outline of the story. The words I used to describe the main character and their intentions have a more negative connotation than what I was striving for, so I would need to improve on that to ensure I don't go off track with a different view or bias as I am striving to make the character more ambiguous.

I initially was planning to have the main character kill, but it may be too excessive and lean more towards the evil side rather than anything, so I stuck with sabotage. Sabotage can range from something that just makes things more annoying to deal with to nearly life-threatening, so I think the flexibility of that can help.

I also want to make the love interesting pretty morally ambiguous as well. But since the short film will not be centered around them, it needs to be more obvious so that they don't turn out to just be plain annoying.

⁀➷ Building a Story (i)

After a bit of thinking, I came up with a genre I wanted to incorporate to the story: Psychological. I think I might end up going for a Psychological Drama (subgenre of Drama) based on a vague story idea I have (will be discussed in the next post).

But first, I want to gather and evaluate the research I have done so far:

Psychological Dramas focus on the emotional, mental, and psychological development of their main character/subject. I want to portray a dysfunctional relationship between, with the main character being the initiator.

My goal here is to build a story in which the audience would have trouble deciding whether the main character's actions are valid. I want to make the main character morally gray, where they have motivations of their own, carrying out actions that are morally complex (Source). I feel like morally gray characters are a bit more relatable generally because not a lot of people are morally black or white, evil or good. Collectively, as humanity, we are known to possess complex minds, thoughts, and feelings. Though certain fictional figures of morally white or good characters are generally looked up to, our complex nature refrains us from achieving such goodness, typically out of selfishness or yearning for something such as love.

Batman, or Bruce Wane, is an example of a morally gray character. Batman does things on his own volition, working as a vigilante. He does not care for social norms or whether his acts are of legality, but he does have the motive to combat to organized crimes. Though he carries out nearly criminal acts, he still abides to his moral code of not killing anyone, even malicious criminals such as the Joker. (Source)

Another morally gray character would be Tartaglia from the game Genshin Impact. Tartaglia is one of the executive heads of a powerful military force in which are widely feared and despised by the people of his world. His goals are to serve the Tsaritsa, the ruler of his nation, to make a living for his family. He treasures his family and would sabotage or kill anyone who gets in the way of his family's happiness.

Shown below is my brainstorming/planning paper. I found that writing things down makes me think a bit more than typing.

Generally, this is just questions that I felt I should answer as I developed the story and characters especially going the route of a morally gray character/psychodrama genre.

So far, the pattern for morally gray characters to do "bad" for a "good" cause seems to be prevalent. I think that it would also go the other way around, where characters may do "good" for an extremely selfish or "bad" cause.

I want to be able to incorporate this in my story allow for the audience to be more immersed in the story, trying to decide whether or not they would root for the main character or not based on their actions and cause(s).

彡 Project Timeline

I composed a timeline a while ago and just today did I decide to make a few changes to allow myself to work in a more efficient manner.

WEEK 1:

- Explore the different options for the project (music video, short film, documentary, trailers) and choose one

- research the genre, explore different media for ideas/inspiration

- begin to think about plot/world building

- blog

WEEK 2:

- continue research and develop a more cohesive plot

- blog

WEEK 3:

- research other components of the project

- develop outline, storyboard

- finalize filming dates with actors

- start social media posts

- blog

WEEK 4:

- continue research for other components

- start filming (remember to document this for SMS and blog purposes)

- SM

- blog

WEEK 5:

- continue research for other components/start developing ideas for print component

- continue filming, get extra shots in case

- SM

- blog

WEEK 6:

- start editing

- continue to develop idea for  print component

- SM

- blog

WEEK 7:

- continue editing if needed

- finalize print idea 

- SM

- blog

WEEK 8:

- finalize video component

- work on print component

- Start working on Critical Reflection

- SM

- blog

WEEK 9:

- continue CR

- SM

- blog

- make sure everything is working how it is supposed to

WEEK 10:

- reflection

- post all components

- post CR

◇ Film Distribution

Not long ago, I worked in a group with two other people, Beatrice and Ale, on a project called "Sincerely", which was our Film Distribution assignment where we worked with a work of a student in the Creative Writing Class. 

Link to Sincerely

My role mostly was to play support, helping provide materials, ideas, and helping film, as well was editing the teaser. I really enjoyed doing this project, but my favorite was likely the editing portion. We had a wide range of footage to utilize, so it worked well with what I had in mind for the teaser. I also helped put together the flashing slogan of the film "Nothing lasts forever" in the full length trailer because we took so much footage with that and I was able to smoothly edit it together. I think it looks really cool.

 I enjoyed working with my group to brainstorm how to distribute this, especially since we were all immersed in the plot.

☆: A New Project

    The upcoming portfolio project has me stuck between choosing to create trailer(s) or short film. We started off having four different choices: music video, trailers, documentary excerpt, and short film. I wanted to rule out music video since it's not really my kind of "thing". Maybe if I was in a group to do this project, I could do it. But I think the part that my work will be promoting someone else's work is scary for me, in the way that I'm afraid my skill set is not good enough yet. I want to improve with my own work before I work with others. For documentary, I really don't have any ideas for a topic. I wanted to do this choice initially, but there really aren't any topics I'm interested in delving deeper in, non-fictionally. So it's between trailers and the short film.

[Trailer]

    Pros: Pretty easy to come up with an outline since the way I think of a plot is built like a trailer in my head. 

    Cons: I need two different ideas for trailers

[Short Film]

    Pros: Sounds cool

    Cons: Requires a whole plot, but only for 5 minutes

I'm not particularly good at making an actual, whole plot or story, but I think I want to challenge myself this year.

I don't believe my pros and cons list is very effective, but at least now I think I know what I want to do.

♧彡 Documentary Critical Reflection (v)

05

Critical Reflection: "Part-Time, Full-Time Student"

  “Part-Time, Full-Time Student” is a documentary I made with a group that captures the hardships of being a full-time high school student whilst having a part-time job. This essentially speaks out for those who lack time to do much for themselves as they struggle between the imbalance of both school and work. 

    The documentary aims for a target audience that wishes it could relate to, educate, and even rival ideas that may circle in the mouths of many. This includes other students who may struggle with being a full-time student while having to balance (several) extracurriculars or outside activities unrelated to school yet equally as crucial to them, people– including students, teachers, and parents– who may not have had the same struggles, who may not have understood how the lack of time due to school and work affect a student’s lifestyle before. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 55% of young people aged 16 through 24 are employed. Though these statistics include ages that surpass the years of high school, those particular people likely go to college. Both high school and college students have to balance between school life and work life, which may broaden the interest of the target audience that we look to relate to beyond high school students. 

    

    Because of our constantly changing society, many different expectations of students are changing alongside this moving society. Requirements for certain programs that several high school students rely on to pay for their future education– which in recent years, has been increasing quite dramatically– like the Bright Futures program, which recently also released higher minimum test scores for eligibility (from an SAT score of 1290 in 2017 to 1340 as of now), which has put a major toll on many students, especially those with minimal time to study. Part-time jobs that students acquire may be for many different purposes, such as helping pay for bills in their household or saving money for their future education– which of course, could not be enough to pay for the average tuition of $10,662 per year in a public college according to Emma Kerr and Sarah Wood’s article, “See the Average College Tuition in 2023-2024”. Students may have part-time jobs to earn money merely for their own spending as well, which is no less work than those saving money.

    Throughout the documentary, there were two particular documentaries that I used as a reference while editing. The first one: John Butler: A Short Documentary. This documentary was used as a reference to structure the interview audio. I would have refilmed our interview clips and audios if we had the chance to. I wished to capture an almost solemn tone as our subject is not particularly upbeat and happy. I tried to incorporate a sort of a pause in between and within questions– which I believe is more prominent in the first subject’s, Mia’s, section of the documentary, for example, timestamps 0:40-0:55 of the documentary.

Documentary Link

    I incorporated a bit of b-roll footage with its original, raw audio as a pause to make sure not too much information is delivered at once. I would refilm the interviews itself yet again though, as I wish to capture more variety of shots of the subject as they speak. Another documentary that was referenced was this: He Spent 40 Years Alone in the Woods, and Now Scientists Love Him | Short Film Showcase. I used this documentary to reference how to structure the b-roll. I only hoped that we would have compiled more b-roll to be able to portray our theme in a more eye-catching and interesting way. I would ensure in a future project that there would be an abundance of b-roll rather than just enough b-roll, which is especially evident throughout the entirety of the second subject’s, Sarah’s, portion. I also noticed that in both documentaries that I referenced, it included the shaky, handheld footage which allowed for a more organic look– which was not included in our documentary. This organic look tends to exist in many documentaries to allow the audience to feel more incorporated, though in our case, we did not include it.  

    

    Our documentary centers around two subjects who are high-school students with part-time jobs who struggle in this way, though it should have captured more of the ‘why’ aspect of the purpose of their part-time job to allow for the understanding of the changing expectations for students leading to part-time jobs which are just barely manageable alongside having to be a full-time student. Through these two subjects, we aimed to capture the essence of the struggles. With my part in the editing process, I made sure to allow the tone to work alongside the subjects words and feelings, using the proper low-beat music to creat a deeper, heavier feeling for the audience to exemplify the feeling of struggle. Supposedly, however, it is not preferred that it starts off that way. The best way that this could have been approached was to let the subjects lead on the tone, so the bias does not seem so forced upon the subject and audience.

    Throughout this project, I have learned quite a lot from having to make my own documentary. The real "doing" of compiling the project is much more intricate than just observing them. I hope that I can incorporate this newly learned knowledge in future documentaries. I want to be able to engage my audience more with my product(s), which even after this, will still require much more research.