EVERYONE LOOKS LIKE AN ABERCROMBIE MODEL!

Alright so yesterday March28th was the 2nd day of shooting, and was also very successful. A couple of changes happened, Kim is no longer the actress, her spot was taken over by Juliette. The day was perfect to go to the beach and film, everything was right. Lighting was perfect, colors were POPPIN, the scenery was beautiful. I dont really have much experience with my camera so it takes me a little longer to get everything just right, and im glad I took my time because the shots came out super dope.

The people at the restaurant we filmed at were also super nice and didnt mind us filming there, I wish I could buy them flowers or something they were genuinely so cool. But anyways, shooting "Gus's" Part was so much fun, and I am thrilled to get this all edited.

1st Day of filming

Yesterday was my 1st day filming. Im super happy with the results, I immediately started editing because I was that excited. Me and John first organized his room a bit and put everything in place, I took out those 14 bars of soap I had bought, and John thought that was extremely hilarious even though the Publix lady did not. I set up my camera about 8 times to see what angles, and lighting would look best. Most of the shots were of him (Wills) doing his daily routine, putting on a shirt repeatedly, washing his hands, and fixing his hair. I also included a couple of cutaways to show some of the stuff in "Wills" room such as the colored pencils and some books so the audience will understand the character a little more.

I would also like to thank John for looking like an Abercrombie model, and for having the patience, or should I say The Patience. The Patience is a very rare thing to have, anyone without The Patience would have murdered me by now. Jokes aside though I really appreciate how awesome he was, and how he totally owned The Patience. Yesterday made for a totally kickass day of filming.

Compulsive buying?

Alright so, I am what you call an *Extreme* overthinker, which basically means I believe I need more things than I actually do. Heres how this went down. Im in A.C. Moore, I need to buy "props" for Wills room. I think to myself what would Will do? What would Will buy? I grab the most boxes of colored pencils that could fit in my hands and think "Damn this color coordination is off the charts" and Will would love all of these colored pencils, next I head over to Publix to find Bars of soap, which HAHA now that I look back I probably looked really weird going to the register with about 15 bars of soap, but anyways as I was doing all of these things I felt like a really accomplished human being, and then I got home. Sigh. I got home, I really outdid myself this time, for something that is only going to be shown for a few seconds I think I overestimated the amount of items that I needed. Hopefully once I set up Johns room absolutely nothing will go to waste.

This upcoming week Me and John will start Filming, so we will see how everything play out then, I am just happy that everything slowly is coming together. Script? check. Props? check. Actors? check. So im a bit calmer now.

I SMELL PROGRESS

I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED THE SCRIPT. So for my opening I really want the camera to tell the story, so Me and Alex as mentioned in previous post kept it very short and simple. The script is simply the voice over for the 2 min film opening. No Dialogue, No individual self commenting, no spoken words. I did this so the viewers can really just absorb the visual information instead of me or should I say "Will" the main character explain what they are seeing, as I find that a bit boring and wont give the viewers a reason to keep watching. I'm glad I have finished the script because now John can understand Wills character a bit more and it is one step closer in accomplishing the opening.

To be completely honest I was having a mini internal break down because I had not found a person to play the part for Gus. Thankfully with my impressive persuasive skills (begging) my friend Kim has accepted to play the part for Gus. Kim goes to the beach basically every weekend which is great because now I don't have to impressively persuade someone to go to the hot, sandy, sweaty, shore. The perfect film time I think would be in the morning so the lighting would be just right, I guess I should film at different times to see what would look best, and hopefully not exhaust Kim in the process.

Group Meeting

   Friday I worked with a group of people in order to progress our film/ magazine ideas. We all started explaining our general outlook on how we expected our project to go, this included: story boards, genre, target audience, artistic style ect. They all really helped me in coming up with a new idea for the ending of my opening. We all were able to collaborate and help each other out. Maria had a really artistic ideal for her magazine which reminded me that I have to keep my film opening unique and stray away from cliches. Steven had like these really farfetched yet fascinating ideas that also reminded me to be eccentric and not afraid to not only think but be outside of the box, and Nico kept it simple and that reminded me not to go wayyy to overboard. All throughout everyone gave a little bit of their personalities and creativity and it made for a really cool collaboration of ideas.

In my film opening I want to achieve a couple of things. One, having the viewers understand "William" has OCD, two convey the future relationship between "Gus" and "William" and three make this as visually appealing as possible. Ive decided that the best way to introduce both characters is with parallel editing and I have divided this in three stages.

Stage 1: This stage consist of showing the location and setting of both characters. William will be in his room early morning, sleeping. Meanwhile various shots will show his room introducing some of his obsessions which include : Extreme organization, cleanliness, and soap. These angles will help show that the character, Will, has many ritualistic actions or compulsions that are nearly impossible to convey in the first two minutes. This stage also includes the introduction of Gus, Gus awakes at the beach extremely confused. I am still trying to figure out how exactly to convey that she is showing signs of psychosis or if I should even try to convey that at all.


Stage 2: Now this is where it is the most important to establish that William has OCD. Stage 2 shows him waking up and again various shots show him doing his daily routine. Organizing his desk, washing his hands 3 times in a very detailed specific way, and putting on his green shirt 3 times exactly. I think this is where I can have fun with editing. I can show shots of disappointment on his face when his shirt isnt exactly right and he must do it all over again. This will be a vital part in establishing his disorder to the viewers. Meanwhile very few shots are taken of Gus, for I want the main focus to be on Will and his compulsions.


Stage 3: Stage three will definitely have some changes as my brain likes to switch things up on me, but as of right now Stage three consist on "where are these characters going next? Will is obviously getting ready for school and has no problem leaving his house, other than his compulsions Will really has no problem in finding his way to school. Gus on the other hand is having a hard time thinking clearly, telling reality from fantasy, and disorganized thinking (all signs of psychosis), so Gus will be shown trying to find a way back home or school, or wherever she decides to go next. The only thing about stage 3 I am not sure of is if to end the opening with Will leaving his house ready to start the day, or having Gus successfully find a way back.

Whats been happening?

This week I have finally started writing the script for the film opening. I paired with my friend Alex as mentioned before and he was a great help. Me and him will meet probably Wednesday next week to make final revisions so that the script is just right. I have also found the perfect person to play William (the main character in the film). My friend John aside from being the quirkiest awkwardest, if thats even a word, person I've ever met, is extremely artistic. I am glad that he is willing to act in the opening because I know he will give valuable insight or creative ideas in order to make the opening visually appealing and interesting.

One thing that is frustrating me is I have not found anyone to play the part of "Gus". Which just blatantly scares me because without Gus, the plan for my film opening will change completely. The search will remain optimistic haha.

JOHN THAT WAS GENIUS!

I have days where I can talk for hours and hours and be outgoing and what not. Aaaaaaand I have days where  listening to people is just way more comforting than talking. Thursday was a quiet day and luckily John was there (at work) and he would not I swear to you he would not stop talking. Since I asked him recently if he could be the main character in the film opening, hes actually been quite interested and has offered some either really great ideas or really bizzare horrible ideas. Out of all the jumble and mess he was spitting out at me one of his statements stood out. I do not remember his exact words but he just made it known that both characters (William and Gus) should not only be mentally opposite but visually as well. Then he had to go deliver food and I had the biggest moment of insight and I started asking myself "alright alright how do I do that? How am I going to show this visually?" "Should one character be more punk than the other?" "Should I change music when introducing the both of them?" and then it hit me. Color.  I have never seen myself spazz for my phone the way that I did, I was like "oh my god oh my god John is God this is the best idea ever" and I searched up color in film and came to this familiar article https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-use-color-in-film-50-examples-of-movie-color-palettes/.
   The article made me so happy which is weird to say but it made me happy because I remember seeing it in class and I was like okay great I am headed in the right direction. Not only that but I found EXACTLY what I was looking for: Complementary colors.

Complementary Colors are, get this ,OPPOSITE. How perfect was Johns timing and How perfect was that epiphany I had. Anyways, continuing the article states that "Dueling colors are often associated with conflict, whether internal or external." Which is perfect because my opening is the introduction of two characters who know nothing about one another, and are polar opposites, and hey 2 minutes is not enough time to establish that so a little color will help convey that message. A little after my research my manager yelled at me to get off my phone, but the screaming was sooo worth it. After work I continued my research at home and me and John made a plan to use a green and red color scheme. Since I am not a millionaire I realize that I cannot make my own set and paint the walls whatever color I want. I decided that it was easiest to use the color scheme in clothing or "costume design". William will have a green "look", and Gus will have the "Red" look. Green is associated with feelings of stress-relief and calmness. Contrastingly Red is associated with danger, energy, desire, rebellion. Both colors go with each character accordingly and will not only provide insight on their relationship but give the film opening a more artistic look.

Citations :Risk, M. (2017). How To Use Color In Film. Retrieved from https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-use-color-in-film-50-examples-of-movie-color-palettes/

Smith, K. (2017, March 05). All About The Color GREEN Meaning, Psychology, Symbolism. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-green-4309#.WqXZu5PwZ-U

Red Meaning - Red Color Psychology. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://www.colorpsychology.org/red/

The Peeps

The characters in the film opening are William and Augustus (Gus for short). Now both of these characters have two very serious mental disorders. William has OCD, and Gus unknowingly has schizophrenia. In my film I would like to achieve an accurate representation of these mental disorders and the effects they have on a person. I feel as if the film industry for quite sometime has portrayed mental illness with a highly negative stigma, and inaccurate representations. Now I know a film opening isn't enough time to develop these characters and give a full idea of what having these disorders are like, but if I could just convey a glimpse into the mind of someone who has OCD or schizophrenia I think it would do a bit of justice. Now not having these disorders my self, and me seriously not wanting to F up, I'm getting help from my friend Alex who has struggled with OCD most of his life. I want to really dig into his brain so I can understand his obsessions and compulsions and write an accurate script, but I don't want to traumatize the kid either so were probably just going to end up writing it together. WHICH IS ACTUALLY PRETTY COOL because thats when these characters will actually come to life and thats pretty exciting.

Genre

The genre of the film opening will be Drama. Dramas tend to dig into character development in order to have viewers relate to the characters within the film. This causes an emotional response and almost a sense of relationship between character and viewer which is really what I would like to achieve in my film opening. Usually in Drama, there are several key points many films touch upon which again is showing emotions and or a relatable event in its true colors. These can include subjects on: war, mental illness, journey, rebellion, social issues, ect. In order to achieve this genre in my opening I'm going to have to think on how I should portray my characters emotions without totally ignoring environmental factors which is going to be an interesting challenge. 

citations:Buffam, N. (2011, March 15). Drama. Retrieved March 04, 2018, from https://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/952-drama/

Upton-Dance, H. (2012, October 04). Drama as a Genre : Codes and Conventions. Retrieved March 04, 2018, from https://prezi.com/rb5k_semwcvg/drama-as-a-genre-codes-and-conventions/

The begining

Over the past couple of days I've been super excited to begin planning this film opening. The story is about a boy, William who has struggled with OCD for most of his life and through a crazy turn of events meets a girl, Augustus. Now Augustus is showing the beginning signs of schizophrenia and it is slowly interfering with her everyday life. She has both the positive and negative symptoms which include: showing no emotion, auditory hallucinations, disorganized behavior, repetitive movements ect. Now when they meet it is everything but perfect. William is completely overwhelmed by Gus's presence, and Gus is repulsed by Williams cumpulsive behavior. Now I definitely want to stray away from a cliche love story and focus more on these two individuals who are greatly misunderstood by society. The story would focus on how the smallest, most peculiar things, can change someones life forever.



The inspiration:
A little less than two years ago I used to work at Aeropostale. Now I came in that day with the usual thought of "But do you REALLY need this job? do you REALLY have to go in there?" I found the courage to walk inside , and by good fortune met one of the most beautiful people I have ever come to encounter in my life. His name was Danny and I really don't know why, but I found myself sprinting 45 mph across sawgrass to go get spaghetti from Super Target. It was funny because I had just met him and we were just both so mutually excited about this spaghetti . Anyway fast forward to the end of our shift the both of us really did not want to go home, and Danny was like "Gabby we have to go to the parking garage" and here I am thinking this kid is going to murder me, 1st spaghetti now the parking garage this is it I am going to die. Regardless of my irrational fear we drove all the way to the top. Right when I parked Danny literally just hopped out the car and sat right on the ledge of this parking garage and I screamed "Danny are u FUCKING CRAZY do you want to die WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!?!" and all he said was "You have to do this, you have not lived until you've done this" it took me about 15 minutes for me to climb on the ledge because I was so scared, and when I finally did this kid was like "great now stand up" and I did but my entire body was shaking like if I accidentally sneezed and fell that was it that was the end of Gabby. Danny then said "alright dude now just scream as loud as you can" and I just stared at him while he screamed "AHHHHHHH" and then two seconds later I joined in "AHHHHHHHH" and when we finally finished screaming and got down Danny said something like "Wasn't that fucking insane" and I just started crying because that was literally the scariest thing I have ever done in my life. Moral of the story is sometimes you just have to do crazy shit with a stranger you met 6 hours ago, and have them totally change the way you look at the world.