Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! I'm going to the location of my film tomorrow and the rest of the week and hopefully, fingers crossed, we get to film this weekend! First I want to establish the audio I will be using and I will focus on some things I can use to create foley sounds, download sound snippets of a website, and the overall background music I can use to create my project. 

Music Techniques to Utilize

The techniques below are some that I have researched from my own notes and some that I want to include in my own opening in order for it to be natural and clever. 

Sound Bridge 

• When a sound is used to transit from one scene to another
• Sound is used as a transition

Example: Between the two scenes that I have in my opening I would like to use a sound bridge with the trash bag falling to Danielle throwing something in the trash making the same sound.

Asyrnchonous Sound

• Sound that doesn't match the screen
• Creates metaphorical situations or provide context

Example: During the same time that Danielle is putting her victim in the trash bag a clock could be ticking in the background to signify that she has little time left untill she is figured out.

Background Music

    My background music does have to be intense and give off some sense of mystery. However, the music should change between the two scenes that I have decided to split my opening to. The first scene will be the clean up scene of the victim and the second scene is the dialogue between Danielle, Doctor Sherwood, and Shelby. So for the first scene I chose to go the more mysterious and tense route. I used this website in order to find the non diegtic sounds that I will include and won't be from the narrative world since it isn't heard from the characters. 

    The first sound I chose was more tense and upbuilding and I wanted to include some sound that had moments of a jump scare and some sort of drop like in rollercoaster. This sound below is a good idea of what I want to go with and it's a good start of how I will approach the background music. Obviously this could have room for change and improvement once I start editing my sequences together. 

    The second audio I'd choose is something that is more digetic such as background noise followed by foley sounds that will be used in order to give a sense of being in a medical clinic and having dialogue to carry the opening. Some foley sounds that I'd include which are seen below.

Foley Sound Ideas

    In some of the clips in my opening I'm going to need to utilize foley sounds because some are a bit specific that I won't be able to find online. Such examples are medical tools being placed on a tray, a trash bag falling with blood inside, and some bones cracking possibly. Now how am I going to do these foley sounds and what objects will I use? I'm very glad you asked! 

Trash Bag Falling

For this I will be able to use a wet paper towel thats covering rocks and drop it on hard wood indoors so that outside sound won't interfere with the foley sound. Below is a visual representation of a basic concept of how this would sound.

Bones Cracking 

Bones cracking as a hollow sound and Danielle would be using medical tools for this so obviously I'd have to maybe use something that I can crack and has the same sound with a scalpel maybe. A good idea is to use any sort of vegetable that has a crunch such as cracking open celery or carrots. Now below is a visual representation of me cracking celery and how it would probably sound because unfortunately right now I do not have carrots or any hard vegetables in my possession. 

Developing My Characters

    Welcome Back everyone! It is officially week four of developing my portfolio project. I have picked out the names, costumes, and basic concept of personality. Now I want to set them out on a mood board displaying these personalities through color schemes. Even though my characters will be displayed in scrubs, I want to incorporate the psychology of color through their costuming and maybe the things they're associated with.

Danielle 

About

Danielle is a 19 year old and is a fresh high school graduate who has been enrolled in rigouruous high school courses that have allowed her to partake in residency at an early age. As I mentioned before Danielle is a female and is hispanic. The actor that I have selected to play Danielle is my friend Maria. She is in theater which makes her a great candidate and I trust her to bring my image of Danielle alive.

Maria (Danielle)

personality

So for Danielle, her personality will be more bipolar since she is trying to keep up this character that she is innocent and hardworking in order to gain the Doctor's approval. Her actual side will be more judgemental and filled with jealousy. This pertains to her motive of taking her coworkers off one by one. The personality she shows off to her coworkers and Doctor Sherwood is more bubbly and hardworking. She has the role of the new coworker in the office even though she has been there for three months. I have searched up how long a residency is and according to Academia Labs, a residency lasts between 6 months to a year. This new role that she has been ominously assigned to doesn't please Danielle and she wants to prove herself to the Doctor since she doesn't seek validation from her coworkers.

Costume

Since nurses do wear scrubs the costuming isn't the difficult part, however, I did include a storyboard to include her color scheme and objects that she is closely associated with. Her costume is seen to be wearing black scrubs to represent her dark personality while still being shown as innocent. She is known to be very smart and clever which is why I included some of her notes that she would be taking in order to keep up with her coworkers so she can shine above.

My Storyboard

     Welcome back everyone! So, now that we got the plot out of the way we can finally put this opening plot into a storyboard. Even though I;m not a very good artist putting these ideas together will aid me visually and allow me to plan my shots and what technique I'm using and obviously it'll be an overview but I do plan on sticking to this storyboard as close as possible. 

Now then, Here is the storyboard I made:

Finalized Plot Outline

    Welcome back everyone! So now it's the time we have all been waiting for... It's plot time! I officially figured out that my genre is horror and my sub genre is psychological horror. With this, I can continue to narrow down my plot with the help of my peers suggestions, commentary, and feedback from the group meeting this week. 

Character Identity 𐙚 

    So as you all know, my main character is the antagonist of the story and as I mentioned before, this character would be a college student that's going through a residency of shadowing over the doctor of the clinic they are working at. The motive of this nurse is to be the star pupil of the doctor and be a very well recognized nurse that is successful and with this they have intentions to kill off the competition of other high ranked nurses that have been at this clinic longer and more sought after by the doctor. This movie would be more focused towards this main character. 

    Previously, I have mentioned that this character would be male and the actor would have to be masculine in order to play this role, however, I have realized I had issues with casting and now the main character would be a female. This character's name is now Danielle and will be casted by someone who is female. 

Plot 𐙚

    Danielle is a college student who comes from a lower middle class family who has been struggling but mysteriously disappeared when Danielle was 15. She looks up to Doctor Sherwood and has multiple victims that are nurses that have successful surgeries and the Doctor care about. All Danielle has left is for her is her being a prodigy as a successful.nurse and before the movie it's inferred that she has just finished off her first victim at the end of the opening we see that she has found a new victim which is another nurse named Shelby. Shelby is the protagonist but as previously stated, she won't be the main focus of the movie due to the movie having the main character be the slasher. The movie will have scenes that consist of Danielle figuring out about Shelby like who she is, who she hangs around, where she lives, and what they do for fun. This is actually what Danielle does to every one of her victims, she collects information and includes it on a bulletin board to track down her victims and get them when they least expect it. By the end, both Doctor Sherwood and Shelby figure out Danielle and as they corner her but she manages to escape and gets a missing person file case against her. 

    For the actual opening plot, I want to develop a sense of mystery and it will start with the credits rolling in as Danielle is seen cleaning up her crime scene but still in her scrubs and in the clinic setting. This will happen for the duration of 40 seconds maybe 30 depending on my story board and the title of the movie will display with the formation of medical tools. After this, Danielle looks at her work and walks out as the Doctor catches her and they go through some dialogue and the conversation goes through him asking Danielle and showing concern about their coworker who has gone missing. During this another coworker of Danielle cuts in and talks to the doctor and we see Danielle get visibly upset and the scene cuts off there. During the conversation the credits will still show but they will be in a white minimalistic font. 

Medical Tools Tray Example

Visual of Danielle during the scene

Research - Media Theory

 Hello everyone! Today's blog will center around the discussion about media theories and what they are. This is being done in order for me to figure out what I can incorporate into my film opening.

                                                   What is a Media Theory?

    According to media studies theory, media theories are useful methods to help the audience anylyze and understand the interlinked relationship between media and society. The theories are seperated into genres that include media contexts, representation, and narrative. The ones I will be focusing on will the narrative category. I have chosen the theory that I want to integrate in my opening and I will have backup reasoning for it.

                                                    Narrative

Character Theory

        The character theory which belongs to Vladimir Propp discusses that characters can be put into specific roles. Propp also argues that these characters are split into seven and these seven characters are:

• Hero - protagonist
• Villain - antagonist
• Dispatcher - sends protagonist on a quest or journey
• Helper - helps the protagonist
• Donor - gives something to the protagonist that they will need later
• Princess - the reward or motivation at the end
• False Hero - not exactly the villain but someone who works against the protagonist and prevents them from succeeding

    Out of these seven characters I do want to integrate three roles into my opening with the characters I have in my film. In this film I will have the nurse going through residency who is obviously the killer and even tho typically the main character is the protagonist, in my case the villain is the main character.

Villain Costume Idea

    The next character I want to include is the protagonist and this would be more of a supporting side character because they are trying to stop but the antagonist but they aren't the center of the film or plot. This protgonist would be the nurse that is being targetted by the villain but will have someone that will support this.

Protagonist Costume Idea

    Last but not least! The helper is next and it will be the doctor who is supporting and helping the protagonist (nurse) with figuring out the villain and who is behind all these killings and missing people that are disappearing.

Helper Costume Idea

Discussion - Group Meeting #1

     Welcome back everyone! It is now week 3 of my portfolio project and today in class we participated in group meetings. In these meetings were were assigned in a group of 5 people and were tasked with discussing our projects as well as give feedback and comments about our openings. This assignment was given in order for us to learn from everyone's project idea, get inspiration, and obviously receive feedback.

Discussion of Openings & Plots

    My group consisted of my classmates: Maria, Will, Arianna, and Samira. Maria went first and she had her genre and inspiration figured out. Her inspiration and blog consisted mainly of genre research and inspiration from the movie Knives Out (2019) which is an Mystery film from what she told us. I personally never watched but I might wanna go check it out! In her opening she wants to focus on mise en scene elements and I recommended using props such as missing case files, a bulletin board with clues and with this she could display her credit sequences in these props. This is something I really enjoy because it correlates with the foreshadowing of the mystery that she wants her opening to develop. Samira also recommended for her to make it about a detective who is compiling all this information about a missing person and by the end they have a finished bulletin board about the missing person. I also gave her the idea of having a background of the missing person such as having a history of drug abuse and that's why they're missing. This is a nice clever touch because it doesn't give away too much about the plot as well as show the audience something they can infer is about a missing person. 

    The next person who went was Samira and I'd like to say she was really prepared and had an idea of behind of scenes in terms of cast, genre, and shots and composition that she would include in her opening. She had the idea of having a sports comedy movie that would include her little brother who is 8 years old and plays baseball. She had the idea of including his friends to play baseball together and she got inspiration from the movie Sandlot (1993). I don't really watch sports movies so Will was telling me it was about baseball players in the summertime and that it's also a coming of age film. I recommended that Samira should have the plot be about her brother and a friend who go to tryouts and try to find kids around their neighborhood to tryout and be apart of a baseball team they have at school. The reason why I recommended for her to figure out the plot is because it will be easier for her to develop the technique she wants to include if she has her plot idea planned out.

    I went afterwards and I was describing my full plot idea that was about a nurse assistant who is a college student that shadows a doctor and goes onto take his victims who also happen to be his peers at the medical office. The student is going through a residency and is trying to kill off his competition. It will be a psychological horror that has medical aspects and mise en scene elements. Samira recommended to me that the beginning of my opening could start off with the man finishing off a patient and cleaning off equipment and typing up documents but have foreshadowing elements of the missing nurse that he killed off but the audience doesn't know that. She also goes on to give me another idea about having a screen of many characters with different characters finding out at different times about what happened to the nurse. I don't know how this would work out but I will take it into consideration. Then, Will gave the suggestion of having a conversion at the end with dialogue between the doctor and main character and have another nurse come in and interrupt the main character and have it finish off with the main character figuring out his next target. These were amazing suggestions because now that I got my plot idea I finally have an idea of what I can include in my opening and now I'm a step closer into making my storyboard.

This is what Samira was referencing to when she gave me that suggestion: 

    Will went next and he also was doing a sports comedy based off Adam Sandler's movies. His inspiration is also Happy Gilmore (1996). He had his plot down and he had two versions which included a man whose going through a conflict and starts playing golf. His first version was having a golf competition be because of a cash prize and his second version was to have the guy lock eyes with a girl. I recommended that he would go with the second idea because in order to successfully do the first idea he would need research on golf competitions, how much money he can find, make his own flyers, and put in more effort into the small details. Whereas, if he went with the second idea he can follow up with this guy having a crush on a sporty girl who is portrayed as whimsical, witty, and athletic. He also mentioned that this guy is not good at golf and he would learn just for her which is a very comedic trope that I feel would reflect really nicely with his ideas.

    Arianna was the last person to go and she went on to explain that her genre was a sports drama. Clearly this is a reoccurring pattern that is in our group and I feel like that is very beneficial because they can reflect on each other's commentary and get inspiration from their openings and mise en scene like costuming and plot ideas due to having very similar genres. Her project is in a group and they have an idea of it being based off an American girl doll story where they are basically coming of age films. She has the idea of a gymnast falling and breaking her leg. Will recommended that she should do a time rewind in her opening of a baby beforehand and having a realization with a whistle come back into reality where she is a gymnast competition. However, we never got the chance to ask if they already have access to a gym with gymnastic equipment because otherwise it would be tedious to ask for permission to film there.

This is the document I utilized in order to take notes: Group Meeting.docx

Now What's Next?

With all this being recapped, I can finally go into figuring out my entire movie plot idea and place my pieces of the puzzle together to figure out who will be casted, my full storyboard, and actually start filming in order to get ahead in my project. That is all for tonight bloggers, stay tuned for more updates on my film opening! 

Research - Lightning Schemes

    Hello everyone! Today we will be focusing on lighting techniques concerning budget, colors, and tone. As we know, my opening will utilize a horror genre so today I will be researching on how these techniques can be used in a horror genre or analyze video essays that go into depth about how to construct lighting for horror films. Now without further ado, let's get started!

 How to Develop Lighting Schemes 𐙚

   As I've surfed YouTube and shuffled through countless videos I have found two very helpful videos that will pertain to my project and the first one talks about the different methods horror film producers take in order to develop a certain tone in horror movie. They talk about low-key lighting, back-lighting, background lighting, natural daylight and much more. 

    Now what are each of these and how can I make use of them? That's a great question! To first develop examples of how I can utilize these techniques, we need to dive into each one of these and construct a basic concept of each and how they're used in horror films. Below is the video and techniques I chose to analyze with this knowledge embedded.

Horror Lighting Tips and Techniques!

Low-Key Lighting

This technique emphasizes shadow and utilizes one key light to create shadows on the character's face.

    Example: The character is notices something or has killed a victim and is reflecting upon that moment

Back-Lighting

This technique is useful for creating sillouettes and shadows where the back of the subject is shown to the camera. The light source will be towards the viewer.

    Example: A character could be just done with something he did, turned off the light and is walking out the room with only the light shining on his back.

Background Lighting

Adding a source of light behind the subject to add a deeper tense or mood within a scene instead of having a completely black background with no depth. This technique would typically be combined with low-key lighting to add a tone to the horror.

Window Lighting

When creating a daytime scene in my case, having a light pointed towards the outside of a window into a room can create a light that is more available to adjust when filming if not met by proper standards.

    Example: The subject is looking outside to see a faint cop car light in the distance.

Note: The lighting methods above are chosen from the video are strictly researched in order to develop my project in relevance to the techniques I was taught in class and will be able to execute them professionally.

 Horror Lighting on a Budget 𐙚

   As I mentioned before, I'm not looking to spend money on a bunch of new lighting equipment. Therefore, in order to aid my solution, I found a wonderful video that will help me get that same professional lighting shown on my film opening within a strict budget. This will allow my video to have the same tone, look, and aesthetic as a professionally filmed video while also utilizing the techniques that I've learned from the video above.

   This video goes into depth and includes an example for each technique utilized with just three lights. This is also used with can lights and used with three steps. I will go on to analyze these lights and include examples of the subject the speaker used in this video.

Budget Horror Movie Lighting

1. Natural Light

Have a natural light from windows and maybe utilize intense light without having to use gels that change the color. Instead adding a blue hue to the colorization of the camera in settings or editing the lighting can help create that blue or red dramatic effect we want.

    Example: The changing blue and red cop car colors are interchanging from the natural light of the window.

2. Practical Light

The light has to be physically in a scene probably from a lamp, ceiling light, or a blue light used in medical centers like hospitals. 

    Example: The subject could turn on a lamp from a dark room and have it shine from behind them.

3. Rim Light

This enhancement from a rim light will finish the job that the practical light wouldn't particular be able to do on its own.

    Example: The subject is in the same position but the lamp isn't shining on their face so we would have to add a rim light to enhance the light or give the illusion of placement from the practical light that's in our scene already.

Now with this research I will be able to recognize what scenes will require me to adjust the lighting and how to combine my efforts from previous class notes that I have made in order to develop my full opening. Stay tuned for my upcoming storyboard of my full opening and more progress that will be made on my film opening. See you next time! 🎀