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.