HERE IT IS GUYS (the film opening)

 ATARAXIA FILM OPENING

CCR 1 - WHIZ

ASSISTED BY ANEESA BAJAJ

CCR 2 - VLOG

ASSISTED BY ANEESA BAJAJ

Postpartum Depression

 Wow guys, its finally over, id like to thank Cambridge... ok but seriously this was like my baby and its now been born and now I'm sad so I think that makes the title accurate.

In Reflection

It's actually insane to think about how far our film has progressed. We started with this idea of a 2000s film like Legally Blonde, and somehow created a sci-fi drama that's completely new.

As the DP I was losing my mind on a daily basis. Managing every shot so that it became meaningful for Halley's character and then later in the edit making sure every shot was perfectly done with color correction and color grading.The editing was also fascinating. We ended up over-shooting quite a bit, so we had plenty of buffer to play with. Even the tiniest things that didn't make it through helped us get familiar with and develop our storytelling.

We definitely had a fat stack of issues. The competition we were preparing for threw our original schedule off, and getting permission to film at the gas station was its own adventure. It took three weeks to track down the manager and get approval to film, but we made it happen somehow.

The Creative Critical Reflections (CCRs) were a nice challenge. Im glad that they allowed me to be so creative with the approach that I could take it and do something more fun as a little video rather than solely an essay. And even as crazy as it got during the edit, I actually learned something from the process.

In retrospect, this project has been such a learning curve. From the lessons in our first classes to the major research works in our blogs, to actually implementing everything in practice during production and post-production, each step led to our final product.

Editing (soundation i will get you)

 Okay everyone so I've just finished filming my vlog and now I've gotten to editing my first CCR.  As I previously mentioned I decided to go with an arcade-esque theme for my Whiz interview (a decision I now regret). So I boot up after Effects and to my dismay, my laptop has gone bat s-word crazy and decided to run out of memory somehow. After fighting it for some time my computer finally decided to draw its last breaths upon this cruel world and freeze and then shut down. Sadly this was not the end, I yanked my dad away from his adult person job and he found a way to fix it, but not without scolding me for somehow ruining my relatively new laptop (My storage was full that was literally it). Now you may ask, "Samuel, how does full storage take up memory?" and my answer to that would be "idk." ANYWAY, I booted the ol' 'puter back up and began working on the 8-bit effect I would have on the interviewer,  Aneesa.

The actual visual effect was quite simple but the real challenge awaited me in the sound design. A few weeks ago I saw a video on social media about an effect called bitcrusher, which basically lowers the bit-rate your audio plays at to make it sound extremely low quality.

@harkeofficial Replying to @quill ♬ Backrooms - Harke

;This effect seemed perfect for the style I was going for but I was yet to discover the horrors of trying to achieve it without the one thing no student has, money. So when I typed "bitcrusher" into the google search bar the first 20 or so results are plugins for various music production programs, NOT an option since 1. they cost money, and 2. they take storage which we have established I do NOT have. Soon my scrolling eyes gazed upon what seemed to be a glimmering beacon of hope in this money hungered landscape. Soundation: a music production program native to your browser with a built in bitcrusher effect. Clicking on the link shows me:

 FREE?? how is this possible? I think to myself, but nary the time to ponder on such things. I rushedly sign up and import my audio, and apply the effect. I go to export and here is where my beef with this program begins:

WHAT THE HECK DO YOU MEAN UPGRADE TO UNLOCK?? I personally feel that exporting is the ONE feature that should never be locked behind a paywall if you are going to advertise your service as FREE, but that doesn't stop them does it. Well after much fighting with myself i decided to cave and just grab a plugin for adobe audition and pray to god that it doesn't murder my computer, which it didn't!!

Anyway with that out of the way the rest of my editing journey went fairly smoothly, I'm glad the format i chose wasn't very edit intense after the fun effects. now that I've finished editing the Whiz interview i can slap together all the clips from my vlog and hopefully close out my CCR work.

That's all from me for today stay tuned for my next post where ill reflect on the project as a whole.

CCR Filming

 Hey everyone!! It is officially the weekend which means I started as any media production student would, FILMING!! I got with my group member Aneesa and we began the day by picking up some equipment, and then picking up a Green Screen from my group member Oriana. Since one of my CCRs is a daily vlog, I thought I would document the experience while talking about my film opening. 

Once we got back to my house, we set up all the equipment, and the fairly large greenscreen and began filming. We started with Aneesa's CCR before filming my first CCR. The Whiz interview CCR went great, and I stumbled upon the fabulous idea of having it be sort of 8-bit arcade-themed. As you can imagine its been a pretty hectic day since I've been filming practically both of my CCRs at once but with one fully filmed I'm sure ill be able to finish the vlog quite easily.

Thats all for now!! I really need to go edit and continue filming my vlog so stay tuned for my next post on that!! :))

CCR Production Plans

 Hey everyone today I thought i would go over how I plan on filming my CCRs.

For my first CCR I plan on creating a film interview show called "Whiz" which is loosely based off of Genius Lyric breakdowns. For this I plan on using a green screen in our school's production studio in order to create a bright blue background for me to be against while I sit in a stool and go over each question in detail. I would check out a camera from the school's TV club and film in there one day after school. As far as editing I think ill get a basic edit done on After effects with all the motion graphic effects I want to do before sending the video to my iPad for some fun Hand-Drawn animations.

For my second CCR I plan on doing a day in the life vlog where I will take my audience through a day in production, showing both filming and editing while answering the questions. For this one I will most likely film it on my IPhone and then later edit it together in premiere. I'll also have to create some screenshots of fake comments that ask the questions of the CCR for me to answer. Overall the video will be sort of styled as a vlog with sporadic Q&A throughout the vlog.

CCR 4 (THE LAST ONE!!)

 Okay so as I mentioned before, my second CCR is going to be a day in the life video. This format is perfect for this next question being

• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

The short answer to this question would be, YES. Our use of technology was unreal, relentless per se. In terms of software, we used Google Docs to organize everyone in the group as well as a program called Writersolo to write the finalized script. We also made use of Premiere Pro as our primary editing suite where we created the line edit, sound design, and color grading. My groupmate Santi also used his subscription to a plugin called Red Giant to add some fun effects that took our video to the next level. 

We also used Adobe After Effects to create the title graphic, as well as the credits and a fun-free plugin called VC Orb to create the planet - probably the highlight of our opening.

In terms of hardware, we went all out for the opening, we used a Canon 5D Mark IV to film in digital format as well as a Magnus VT-4000 tripod to stabilize our shots. We also sparingly used my teammate Santi's DJI Osmo Pocket to film some stable tracking shots.

That's all from me for now!! stay tuned for my next post about my production plans for each CCR

CCR #3 (A day in the life vlog)

 SO for my second CCR I thought it would be fun to create a day in the life vlog. The video would basically take you through my production process in one day (from filming to editing). I would tour the audience through different aspects of my production while answering "questions from viewers." I think this structure is a great way of answering each question in an effective and creative manner.

The third question of my CCR asks 

• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

I would answer this by saying that this project really gave me an opportunity to grow in ways I hadn't expected! Before AICE Media, I had some background from film and TV production classes, but this course has taught me the WHY behind creative decisions - like why shoot wide instead of close, or why make a cut at a specific moment. I'm usually quick with most of my productions, creating them within a week or even within 6 hours, but that meant I didn't always stop to think about my editing choices. This project forced me to slow down and be more intentional with every decision, which has
made me a better filmmaker overall.

My technical skills have definitely improved too. As one of the producers, I had to pay attention to all the small details during shooting to avoid having to reshoot scenes, as well as keeping the production on the track of a schedule. I also pushed myself to expand on pre-existing technical skills like color grading, which I would say I was already pretty good at, but by going online and watching tutorials geared specificallty at films within my genre, which has which has helped me expand my previous niche of bright vibrant warm scenes,  to some cool dramatic scenes. There's also a VISIBLE change in my work from the beginning of the year to now with our film opening. I'm much more careful about framing, lighting consistency, and making sure all our shots serve the story in some way. Overall, this project has helped my expand my skillset and even try my hand at new techniques I hadnt had the opportunity to try yet.

Thats all for today! ill see you in my next blog closing out the CCR Questions!!! ;)

CCR Part 2

 Hey everyone!! Today i thought i would talk about the second part of my first creative critical reflection. As I said before I thought it would be fun to take inspiration from Genius's lyric breakdown videos, but I thought I would ad a few key differences to make it fresh. I want to do this mainly by incorporating fun animations within the video. I hope to use arrows and highlight effects to create annotations over elements (like a highlight animations or arrows to go over a specific part of the video for emphasis). That being said I also created a fun logo and title for the video

In this video I also need to address the second question of the CCR:

• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Since our main character is a teen experiencing depression, our target audience is gonna be teens and young adults who might relate to her struggles. The sci-fi elements with the planet are cool and all, but what really matters is the drama at the heart of our story. Halley is completely detached from reality after losing her friend. We've actually looked into teen depression stats during our research and the numbers are much higher than most people realize. We wanted our film to connect on two levels, helping teens who feel similar to Halley see themselves represented, and also showing others how to recognize when someone might be struggling.

For the distribution part, we'd obviously go digital first with platforms like Amazon Prime since its much easier to upload independent works onto their platform. But the exciting part is that we're submitting to film festivals specifically for student work! The Lightning Film Festival at our school is accepting submissions right now and we're also looking at Shortcuts, which is a Broward County program for student filmmakers. Getting featured through Shortcuts would be cool because they promote selected films across their social platforms, and even air them on a local tv channel as a part of a larger show, which could help our work reach many more people.

Thats all from me for now, stay tuned for my next post about my plans for the next question of the CCR

Getting creative (with my critical reflections)

 Hey everyone!! I've been thinking about different creative approaches for my CCR (Creative Critical Reflection) and I think I've found the perfect format. I'm going to structure it like those Genius lyric explanation videos. You know the ones where artists break down their own lyrics with those yellow highlight annotations? I feel like this would be a really cool way to analyze our film opening!!

For question #1 of the CCR (How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?), I can really dive into how our film opening uses sci-fi drama conventions while representing teenage depression. The planet isn't just a world ending threat, it's a metaphor for how Halley feels like her world is falling apart. In the Genius video format, I could highlight specific shots of the opening and explain how they represent her emotional state. Since we're blending sci-fi elements with this personal struggle, I'm challenging conventions by approaching depression in a visually engaging way rather than just through dialogue or traditional drama techniques. This approach would make the analysis way more engaging than just talking to the camera for 5 minutes, and it gives me a chance to really get into the symbolism of certain elements (such as the significance of each item she gets from the store).

Thats all from me for now, stay tuned for my next post about how I plan on responding to the second question in my CCR.

Coloring is fun (and the line edit too ig)

Hey everyone!! We're now officially in the post-production stage of our film opening and it's been such a journey getting everything to come together. For our opening, we're using Adobe Premiere Pro for the main edit (fun fact: I'm Adobe Premiere certified!!), while some of our VFX work for the planet is being done in After Effects and Blender. We decided to start editing the outdoor footage and working on those effects first. This way, once we FINALLY get to film the indoor portion, we can just add it in without having wasted any time. Two of my team members are handling the line edit and vfx, while I'm focusing on the color grading.

Speaking of color grading, it's been SUCH an important part of our project because we shot in both indoor and outdoor settings, plus our shoot ran later than expected, so some shots are darker than others. Here's what some of the clips looked like before and after

Color grading has involved A LOT of back and forth between contrast and exposure settings to find the perfect brightness. I also fiddled with white balancing tools to fix footage that came out either too blue or with that weird purple tint that happens sometimes. We've also been playing with tint and saturation in Premiere's basic correction tools - for some clips we had to increase the warmth and greens, while others needed different adjustments.

It's amazing to see the transformation! The color grade really makes everything feel more cohesive and film-like. Thats all from me for now, stay tuned for my next post about the CCR planning :)

Organization Central (too much footage)

Hey everyone!! We just got back from our weekend competition trip, which means we can now officially start the editing stage of our film opening, and it feels great to finally be putting everything together. Thankfully, our editing process is pretty organized (I think) - My teammate Oriana started by sorting footage into specific folders by scene type. This time, we created separate folders for car scenes, planet scenes, funky, messed up shots (because you never know when you might need them), and extra footage.

For our opening, we're using Adobe Premiere Pro for the main edit, while some of our VFX work for the planet is being done in After Effects and Blender. We originally planned to shoot all our scenes in one day, but then, as mentioned before, we ran into a devastating setback (location permission issues). We got all our outdoor shots done, but couldn't film inside the store because the manager wasn't there. So we're starting the edit with what we have while my groupmate, Santi, works to track down whoever "Katty" is, who can hopefully give us permission to film indoors.

That's all from me for now, stay tuned for my next post about the line edit  & color grading =)

Changing the script on set?? should be fine

During our shoot day, we decided to change one of our scenes on the spot! Originally, we had planned for Halley to simply connect her phone to the car after hearing just 1 radio channel mention the planet, but we had a better idea while filming. Instead, we now have her flipping through several radio channels, all of them covering the rogue planet and its upcoming impact, which makes her increasingly annoyed until she finally clicks the radio off completely.

This new version is much longer than what we initially planned but it works a lot better for showing her character's frustration with the whole situation. We even got some extra takes of her reacting to static and different voices, so we have plenty of options for the edit. Sometimes the best ideas happen right on set! The only downside was that we spent so much time on this scene that we ended up rushing through the outdoor shots and filming later than planned (making our shots appear to be during the nightime), but I think the trade-off was worth it. 

Thats all from me for now, Im very glad that we were struck with this divine inspiration, stay tuned for my next post about the line edit :)

its go time ( film fr now )

 Hey everyone!! I'm super excited to share how our first day of filming went! As I mentioned in my last post, we had to split our shoot into two days because of the gas station permission issue, but OOOHHMAHHGAADDDDD the footage we got looks amazing

We managed to get a ton of shots and we actually ended up with way more footage than we originally planned, which is definitely a good thing since it gives us more options to play with during editing. Overshooting is always better than undershooting when it comes to filmmaking!

Anyway, remember how I talked about our lighting plans in my previous post? We specifically wanted to film during dusk to get the vibrant pink and violet tones in the sky to contrast with Halley's neutral outfit. Well, it turns out dusk doesn't stick around very long! By the time we finished getting all our shots, it was completely dark outside.

This means we'll need to do some heavy color grading to make it look like everything happened within the actual timing of the scene. We'll have to adjust the darker shots to match the earlier dusk footage so the lighting feels consistent throughout the opening sequence.

Since my team and I will be at a competition this week, we won't be able to film the interior gas station scenes just yet. To accommodate for this, we're going to start working on a line edit of what we have so far and begin working on the VFX for the planet. 

That's all from me for now! Stay tuned for my next post on (checks schedule) uhh I'm not quite sure yet... See ya :)))

ORPAH WINFREY SAID NOO ??? ( the gas station)

 Hey everyone!! Today I want to talk about a small issue that occurred during production. So my group finally got together to start shooting the opening and everything was going really well when we were filming outdoors.

Anndd then it all went downhill from here... Our original idea was to film all the outdoor scenes first, and then go inside the gas station to shoot the interior scenes. The strategy was just walk in and ask for permission on the spot rather than calling ahead because, honestly, we thought we'd have a better chance if they could see we were just some random kids working on a school project.

[insert kids working on school project]

The gas station employees were actually super nice about it, but they couldn't allow us to film there because their manager wasn't there, and apparently they weren't allowed to contact them either.

This created a less than ideal situation for us. We needed to pick between finding a completely different gas station to film the interior shots (which would create continuity issues), or split our filming into two separate days. After talking to the group and our actress we ended up deciding to push filming the interior back to March 9th.

The good in all this is that this gave us extra time to be creative with the outdoor footage which will give us more options during editing. But since the most editing heavy shots are filmed and over with, well be able to finalize those before filming the indoor shots.

That's all from me for now. Stay tuned for the actual post about filming (Ik its like the third time I've said this but I promise lol) ! See ya :0

yay drawing ( shot composition )

Hey everyone!! so today we're gonna be talking about how we decided to plan the shot composition for one of the MOST CRUCIAL scenes in our film opening!!

A really important part of our film opening is when Halley looks up at the sky after walking out of the gas station and this is the big reveal of the sort of looming planet over the Earth and a moment for the audience to recognize the actual danger. So obviously we want to make sure the shot that reveals this is well-composed and provides meaning and context to the film.

Me and my group member Oriana worked on illustrating basically a plan for how we wanted to compose this shot once she leaves the gas station. We were thinking of ways to make the planet seem even more significant than it already would seem, and we felt the best way to do this was to have the planet take up almost the entire top third and
be distinct enough in color that it changes the color of the surrounding sky.

So in this illustration, we can see Halley walking with her groceries back to her car and as she notices the planet, she takes off her headphones and it's the first real glimpse into her recognition of this event and also her refusal to care about it, which is a very important moment for developing the character.

This shot is going to be absolutely crucial for establishing the tone of our film. It shows both the apocalyptic situation AND our main character's unusual reaction to it. The contrast between the enormous threatening planet and Halley's indifference is exactly the kind of juxtaposition we want to create throughout the film.

Thats all from me for now, stay tuned to see us actually FILMM EVERYTHING!! See ya ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Equipment Manager Equipment Manages

 Something you guys may not know is that I am the equipment manager of my schools TV production program, thus I am in charge of gathering the equipment as we prepare to shoot.

Getting the right equipment is crucial to our shoot. We will need a camera that does well in low lighting, a tripod to stabilize our shots, and the right lens which also benefits low lighting scenarios.

With that considered this is what my group plans on checking out from the TV production programs closet:

- CANON EOS 5D MARK 4

This DSLR camera has a high quality sensor that does extremely well in low lighting which is important since we will be filming at dusk

- MAGNUS TRIPOD

This tripod has a great head piece that handles smoothly for any pans we may need to do

- 24-105mm Lens

This lens has a consistently low aperture, even when zoomed in, and has a great image stabilizer that will improve the look of any handheld shots we may need to take.

50 mm lens

This prime lens has an extremely low aperture and will allow us to get a high depth of field which is necessary for some shots.

This equipment provides us with all the right qualities to create a great looking film opening. In order to keep track of everything we will be using the program Booksource Classroom which is a free classroom library software which I have cleverly repurposed for camera equipment

Thats all from me for now, make sure to stay tuned for my next post about shot composition, and then later FILMING!!! (woah!!?) (◍•ᴗ•◍)♡

OH OH OH OH OHHHHH (LIGHTT EVERYTHINNGGG)

 if you couldnt tell the title is a zootopia joke, okay now moving on to the actual post

Hey everyone!! Today I wanted to talk about our lighting plans for the opening sequence - something that's going to be really important for creating the right atmosphere and emotional impact. To represent the lighting of the grocery store I created this mood board

Our opening takes place in two main locations: inside the gas station (which we're shooting to look more like a grocery store) and outside in the parking lot/car. Each location is getting its own distinct lighting treatment to help tell Halley's story.

Inside the store, we're going with bright cool tones - specifically a washed-out blue that really emphasizes those feelings of sadness and depression that Halley's experiencing. We're still keeping enough saturation to make certain items pop off the shelves, which creates this interesting contrast between the mundane world and Halley's emotional state. The neutral colors from her costume will play against this cool background, reinforcing her disconnection from her surroundings.

When we move outside, everything shifts. The scene is at dusk/sunset, which gives us this amazing palette of pinks, violets, and oranges to work with. Then we have the giant planet in the sky adding its own overwhelming colors to the scene. What's really interesting here is how Halley's neutral-toned outfit will contrast against this almost beautiful apocalyptic sky - it's our first real hint to the audience about how she sees the world differently from everyone else.

The car scene gets even more interesting with the lighting. We're planning to have warm interior lights when she first gets in, like this brief moment of comfort, but as she starts driving and the lights turn off, we return to those cooler tones. This shift happens right as she looks at a photo of her and her friend, giving us this visual representation of her emotional state and providing foreshadowing for details that may become relevant later in the story.

That's all for now stay tuned for my next post which will most likely be the storyboard we've been putting off. See ya :3

GRWM to go die lol (Costuming)

 Hey everyone!! Today I want to talk about how we're developing Halley's visual character through costume and props. These elements are super important for telling our audience who Halley is without any dialogue.

My groupmate Oriana created a very helpful moldboard based off of the character design board that I made a while ago, this time based in real things we own + our actual actress

We've been working hard on putting together Halley's look, and we've finally settled on something that really captures her character. For our opening scene at the gas station, she'll be wearing layered shirts, a brown long sleeve under an oversized band tee of some kind, paired with baggy jeans. This outfit is meant to show that Halley has kind of given up on caring about her appearance, which reflects her deeper emotional state.

The color palette we've chosen is really intentional too. We've chosen brown, black, gold, and beige. The brown and black create this really interesting contrast that represents the void in Halley's life and how weighed down she feels. The beige adds to this whole vibe of someone who's lost their motivation, it all comes together to basically represent a :| face.

For her hair, we're still deciding between two looks, either down and messy or in a messy ponytail. Either way, we want it to look like she just couldn't be bothered to do much with it. It's another little detail that adds to this character we're building of someone who's just given up.

The main prop we're giving her is a pair of headphones. These aren't just any accessory, they're like a symbol of how disconnected she is from the world around her. When she's wearing them, she's in her own safe space, completely cut off from reality. This is going to be especially powerful in our opening when chaos breaks out in the store and she's purposefully ignorant to it all.

It's amazing how much story you can tell just through these visual elements. Every choice, from the baggy clothes to the headphones, is helping us build this character of someone who's struggling with depression but trying to hide it behind this facade of not caring.

Thats all from me for now next post I'll be talking about our plans for set design and lighting, two more parts that will help bring this world to life. Stay tuned!

Halley (The girl not the scientist or the comet or the chocolate)

Hey everyone!! Today I want to share the process of how we chose our main character's name, because it's actually way more meaningful than you might think!

When we started brainstorming names, we knew we wanted something that would tie into our spacey theme while also revealing something about our character. After researching a bunch of space-related names (googling "space names for girls"), we landed on Halley, named after Halley's Comet.

What makes this name perfect is how it works on multiple levels. First, there's the obvious space connection, which fits perfectly with our sci-fi elements. But what's really cool is how Halley's Comet itself kind of mirrors our character's journey - it's this celestial body that spends most of its time distant and isolated, only passing by Earth every 72-80 years. When it does appear though, it's this incredibly beautiful sight.

This parallel works perfectly with our character because Halley has been living in this state of isolation and emotional distance due to trauma from her youth that led to depression. She's built up these walls, keeping herself distant from others and acting like she doesn't care about anything or anyone around her. But just like her namesake comet, there's something beautiful waiting to be discovered.

The name Halley is also associated with strength and valor, which becomes really significant as our story progresses. While she starts off isolated and seemingly uncaring, she eventually finds the strength to push through her struggles with the help of someone who sees past her defensive exterior. It's like they're able to see the beauty of the comet even when it's far away.

At its heart, our film is about recovery and finding hope even in the darkest places. The name Halley encapsulates this journey - from isolation to connection, from darkness to light. It's about someone who seems distant and unreachable finding their way back to life with the help of others who refuse to give up on them.

That's all from me for now. IK I said this post would be about costuming but I promise that will be the next one. See ya >:D

P.S. for anyone who wanted to see the chocolate here's a pic:

MUSIC !! (and audio)

Hey everyone!! Today I want to talk about our approach to sound design for the opening. One thing I've learned in this course is that audio can actually be more crucial than visuals in creating an immersive experience - it's what really pulls viewers into the world we're creating.

We're planning to use several different types of sound in our opening. The main one will be non-diegetic sound - basically sound that doesn't come from within the scene itself, like background music. This will be super important for us since music is going to be a key element in conveying Halley's emotional state and the overall mood.

We'll also be using synchronous sound to ground everything in reality - you know, the ambient sounds of the gas station store. Everything from footsteps, the rustle of shopping bags, to whatever the news anchor is faintly saying on the TV in the back must be implemented to create an immersive Soundscape. These synchronized sounds help create that sense of place while still letting us control exactly what the audience hears.

There's also going to be a crucial moment when Halley turns on her car radio and hears the announcement about the approaching planet. This will deliver key information without needing to show a newscaster or break away from our focus on Halley using Diagetic sound.

For the music, I just reached out to artists for permission to use their songs. Here are the tracks we're thinking of:

"A Mistake" by Fiona Apple - The raw emotional vocals and somewhat chaotic instrumentation really mirror Halley's internal state, plus the lyrics about making mistakes and self-reflection fit perfectly with her character arc.

"Glorybox" by Portishead - The alternative sound and dreamy atmosphere could work amazingly for the opening. The slow, hypnotic quality matches her detached reaction to what should be a terrifying sight.

"Pathetique" by ROAR - This one has this beautiful melancholic quality that really captures the underlying sadness of Halley's character while still maintaining some hope in its melody, as well as an amazing crescendo that can be used for the shot revealing the looming planet

"ALIEN LOVE CALL" by Turnstile - The spacey, atmospheric qualities obviously fit our sci-fi elements, but more importantly, the gentle, floating feeling of the song matches Halley's disconnected state.

"Red Handed" by Benches - The building intensity of this track could work really well for the chaos-in-the-store sequence, especially since it maintains this ethereal quality that fits with Halley being lost in her own world while everything falls apart around her.

2 other songs were thinking of include "Figure 8" by Paramore and "Alexandra" by The Army, The Navy

We're still working on getting permissions sorted out, and we might end up having to look at other royalty free options, but these songs really capture the vibe we're going for 

That's all for now! Next time I'll probably talk about the official costuming and props. See ya :)

Our full idea (finally)

 Hey everyone!! last class, we discussed the full vision for our film opening and the broader story it introduces. 

Our opening focuses on the first 2 minutes of the film, introducing our protagonist Halley (named after Halley's comet). She's going to be the central character throughout the film, with the whole story revolving around her personal journey.

As described before, Halley is characterized as someone who appears not to care about anything around her. She's supposed to be shown as kind of unapproachable and in her own world. This stems from her underlying depression and anxiety, which has led her to build this apathetic persona as a defense mechanism. While we won't explicitly reveal all this in the opening, her behavior will definitely imply it.

The opening, as shown earlier, takes place at a gas station, where Halley buying some food and going about what seems like a normal day's errands But as she's shopping, chaos gradually descends among other shoppers, people begins to run out in a panic but she doesn't seem to notice or care, she continues to shop with her headphones on.

When she finally walks outside, she sees a planet concerningly close to Earth. Instead of panicking, she just looks at it with mild curiosity. It's only when she gets to her car and turns on the radio that she learns the truth: this planet is on a collision course with Earth, and humanity has only about five months left. Though she briefly shows concern, she simply turns off the radio and continues with her journey, leaving us wondering what will happen next.

Inspo shot from Melancholia (2011)

The title we chose for our film is "Ataraxia,"(we argued about it sounding like anorexia for like 10 minutes straight) which perfectly captures both the cosmic theme and the emotional journey. It' means a state of complete peace and freedom from emotional disturbance, essentially the opposite of where Halley begins. We wanted something that sounded cool and sci-fi while also hinting at the emotional arc of our protagonist.

As for the rest of the film, Halley meets someone who contrasts completely with her, an opposite who helps her recognize the importance of life and work through her issues. Their journey together would continue until the planet eventually hits Earth, but by then, Halley would have found peace and happiness, having overcome her struggles with this person's help.

one of my group members found something eerily resembling our opening

@dailymail It might sound like a terrifying scene from an apocalyptic science-fiction film. But the world's space agencies have now made a rare emergency decision as the chances of Earth being hit by a 'city-killer asteroid' rise. As the risk increases, an international team of astronomers has been granted use of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to determine how much damage the asteroid would cause. The best estimates currently suggest the asteroid is up to 90m (300 ft) wide. That would make it around the same size as New York's Statue of Liberty or London's Big Ben. #asteroid #nasa #armageddon ♬ som original - Rock Music

We're aiming for a wholesome, drama focused story where the sci-fi elements serve more as a metaphor and catalyst for character growth. The planet becomes a deadline that forces Halley to confront her feelings and learn to appreciate life before it's too late. It's less about the apocalypse and more about finding beauty and acceptance even in inevitable bad moments.

That's the overall vision for our film! The next post will probably be either the storyboard if it's finished by then or something about music (currently panicking about that). see ya later :)

"youre doing too much" no im not i promise it is that deep (media theories)

Hey everyone!

A really important part of our AICE Media Class is learning, and analyzing media theories and how they're used in actual movies and tv. It's been really interesting to see how specific details in movies aren't just random but actually intentionally placed in order to convey additional meaning. 

Out of all the theories we've covered, my group has been particularly drawn to theories like Todorov's Narrative Theory of Equilibrium (specifically disequilibrium), Binary Opposition Theory, Character Theory, and Narrative codes. After some group discussions, we decided to focus on Todorov's disequilibrium concept and semantic codes for our film opening.

For those who don't know what that is, disequilibrium is basically the "oh crap" moment that disrupts the protagonist's normal life. If you haven't already guessed having read my previous blog posts, that moment is the ginormous planet that is 5 months from crashing into Earth at the time of our opening, (subtle, I know). This works perfectly with our opening since the scale of the disruption starkly contrasts the reaction and attitude of the main character, Halley.

The next theory we chose to apply was semantic codes, which are basically objects or visuals that represent more than just what they literally are. We're planning to use this with the items our character selects at the grocery store. Each item will have a deeper symbolic meaning, though you won't fully get what they mean until later in the film. Of course this would only come up if this film ever were to be made (which it wont).

Applying these theories helps us make our opening feel more intentional and thoughtful, which I really appreciate. It's easy to just film something that looks good, but having these theoretical frameworks helps us make something that actually means something.
Anyway, that's all from me for now! I'll keep you guys posted for my next blog about the the full storyline of the movie :)

Scumptious script-writing

 Hey everyone!! recently in class, we finalized our story and script for the film opening. The script was mainly written by my friend Santi as he had the divine inspiration of the original idea. One change you may notice from how the concept was originally described is that the 2000's setting has been more or less scrapped. We still want to take inspiration from that time period, but we decided that its important for the opening to be less centered on that specifically. We also decided upon the name 'Ataraxia' for our movie since it describes the state our character is in, as well as having a cool sci-fi vibe to it.

SO without further adieu here is the script :0

Group Meetings

Today's class time consisted of group meetings!!!!

I got with a few people from other groups and we discussed everyone's projects, and more specifically we helped each other develop and critique our own ideas in order to get outside perspective on what may work and what may not.

Rewrites

Today the groups pointed out a pretty large plot hole, that being that the giant planet in the sky would probably raise concerns a little quicker than depicted in our opening. Who knew people would want to run for their lives when they see a giant planet about to crash into earth? Either way this plot hole called for some obvious rewrites (something I'm sure our script-writer is thrilled about). So far the plan is to make it more apparent why the panic is only now starting at the beginning of our opening, since it wouldn't make sense for people in a grocery store to just randomly fall into group hysteria and panic attacks, even though that sounds like its own sick story. Anyway that's all from me, ill get back to you guys with the final script in my next blog post :)

Character Design (the fun part :DDD)

 So for our opening we established our plot would revolve around a world ending event, however it would center around a young adult woman who seems to not care about any of it. That being said we need her design to heavily depend on 3 things: character, time period, and setting

The first one is easy, this character seems to be someone who may not have lead the most fufilling life before the discovery of the world impending doom. This actually reminds me of the main character of my favorite TV Show "Dead Like Me" in the show Georgia Lass is a young adult who doesnt seem to care much for any aspect of life. This show will be a helpful source of inspiration when it comes to writing and directing a character such as hers.

The next aspect was established by my group to be the early 2000s. This time period didnt really have a distinct look as far as setting but it did have a very distinct fashion and make up style. The clothing of the time seems to be marked by low rise pants, layered shirts and, surprisingly, RHINESTONES?? To be honest I did NOT expect rhinestones to be one of the most common things i saw when looking up clothes from that era, but something to consider when designing her outfit.

The last aspect to consider is the setting, America in the early 2000s was marked most distinctly by its pop culture for young adults of the time. Flip phones were common, facebook and myspace were the most popular social media, and Pop-punk and r&b were on a rise.

Given all of these aspects i put together a mood board of what I personally envision the character to look like.

Scheduling HELL

 Today my group members sat down to plan the next 7 weeks of our lives (dramatic ik but still). We have many factors to consider as we all have pretty busy lives, this opening needs to be a priority for the majority of the next 2 months. We worked on a shared document together to allocate deadlines for each step of production during each week:

SCHEDULE:

Week 1 (1/29-2/2):Research

• Genre 

• Brainstorm/Idea

Week 2 (2/3-2/9):Planning

• Storyboard (done by 2/7) 

• Script (done by 2/7)

• Location scouting (done by 2/10)

• ShotList (done by 2/9)

• Casting (done 2/9) 

Week 3 (2/10-2/16):Filming

• Get props/costumes (2/10-2/12)

• Begin filming (2/15)

• Create Foley

• Find sound effects/music

Week 4 (2/17-2/23): Wrapping up filming/Editing  

• Wrap up (2/18)

• Start editing- line edit (2/23)

• Start graphics/VFX

Week 5 (2/24-3/2): Editing

• Final edit (3/2)

• Revisions: make changes needed 

Week 6 (3/3-3/9): CCR 

• Creative Critical Reflection

• Research information relating to the reflection.

• Create the reflection.

• Edit and review CCR.

Week 7 (3/10-3/16):CCR

Week 8 (3/17-3/25): Quick Fixes

• In case any fixes are needed

Its important to note that all 4 of us have a 1 week competition trip from 2/28-3/4. Losing this weekend is quite honestly very upsetting because it reduces the amount of time that we have for both filming and editing. Meaning we cannot rely on weekend to get the bulk of the work for this opening completed.