Today, my partners and I came together to discuss our project and it got me thinking...What should we name our short film? No one had made a suggestion yet and since we seem to be scrambled on other aspects of the film so I figured that since our story is going to center around a doll, we should title the film doll in Latin, which is Pupa. We came up with the idea of the main character being haunted by one of her dolls, but the doll is actually a human being that she kidnapped and views as a doll or plaything for the duration of the short film.
Our initial idea was to have the main character steal and collect personal belongings from friends and family members throughout the film. Those items would include hair clippings, jewelry, etc. The point of her stealing all of these belongings is so that she can use all of her favorite stolen items to create a doll. The doll is meant to represent what the main character wished she looked like. The doll is supposed to be "perfect". Our goal with this is to get across the point that girls try so hard to be perfect and stoop so low to get there, and even when it is obvious that our ideas of perfection are unattainable, we do anything to reach them, unfortunately.
I am seriously hoping that this film does off come across as comedic in any way, because it is supposed to be a thriller. My fear is that our film will be 'corny' or 'cheesy' so even this idea worries me and at this point I am not sure what we're gonna actually do. Hopefully next class, we will cement our plot. At least we have a title, I'm not sure if it'll stick, that just depends on what else changes in our plot or narrative. I am hoping that we keep the title though and not just because I came up with it .. ;)
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Monday, February 25, 2019
Creative Block
After meeting in class today and having all class period (90 minutes) to brainstorm and come up with ideas for our project, I've come to the realization that we need to seriously buckle down and get it together. Remember when I said that we wanted to do a social thriller? Yeah, scratch that. We are still set on the thriller genre and we still do want the message or narrative to be deep, however we are all currently having creator's block....if that's even a thing.
Currently we are considering creating a story about having someone you know, love, and trust ultimately betray you and it is revealed that they are not truly what they were portraying themselves to be. One film that came to mind for me was again, Get Out. In Ge Out Rose was later revealed to be a racist woman who never truly loved Chris and was only using him to sell his soul. Gone Girl is also a great example of a thriller in which the protagonist has been bamboozled by someone they are extremely close to. We had the idea of using a sibling as the "fake person" specifically Kylie's twin sister Taylor, who she has an uncanny resemblance to. By using Kylie and Taylor as the two main characters we felt as though it would be clear to the audience of our film that the two girls are closely related.
The idea of having a protagonist with major trust issues was also tossed around. Trust issues paired with intense anxiety and hallucinations would make for a chaotic, very interesting piece. The hallucinations would not be made clear to the audience on whether or not the main character is actually seeing real things or whether she is simply hallucinating. The Girl on the Train is a great example of a movie that deals with hallucinations or false perceptions and how it creates suspense and excitement for the audience. The film has been described as "a thriller that explores unsteadiness not just as a state of mind but as a creative value—argues that distortions can be resolved, rock bottom can be pushed off from, people can change."
Sources:
Nicolaou, E. (n.d.). Love "Gone Girl"? Read These Psychological Thrillers Next. Retrieved from https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2016/07/116126/best-psychological-thriller-books-like-gone-girl
Currently we are considering creating a story about having someone you know, love, and trust ultimately betray you and it is revealed that they are not truly what they were portraying themselves to be. One film that came to mind for me was again, Get Out. In Ge Out Rose was later revealed to be a racist woman who never truly loved Chris and was only using him to sell his soul. Gone Girl is also a great example of a thriller in which the protagonist has been bamboozled by someone they are extremely close to. We had the idea of using a sibling as the "fake person" specifically Kylie's twin sister Taylor, who she has an uncanny resemblance to. By using Kylie and Taylor as the two main characters we felt as though it would be clear to the audience of our film that the two girls are closely related.
The idea of having a protagonist with major trust issues was also tossed around. Trust issues paired with intense anxiety and hallucinations would make for a chaotic, very interesting piece. The hallucinations would not be made clear to the audience on whether or not the main character is actually seeing real things or whether she is simply hallucinating. The Girl on the Train is a great example of a movie that deals with hallucinations or false perceptions and how it creates suspense and excitement for the audience. The film has been described as "a thriller that explores unsteadiness not just as a state of mind but as a creative value—argues that distortions can be resolved, rock bottom can be pushed off from, people can change."
Sources:
Nicolaou, E. (n.d.). Love "Gone Girl"? Read These Psychological Thrillers Next. Retrieved from https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2016/07/116126/best-psychological-thriller-books-like-gone-girl
Waldman, K., & Waldman, K. (2016, October 06). Emily Blunt Is a Marvel of Bleary Dishevelment in The Girl on the Train. Retrieved from https://slate.com/culture/2016/10/the-girl-on-the-train-starring-emily-blunt-reviewed.html
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Genre
The genre of our short film is..... THRILLER! We've collectively decided to do a thriller because it is all of our favorite movie genre. Also thrillers are very dependent on sound elements such as music and stings, I love the incorporation of sound elements to create a suspenseful mood or tone throughout films of television shows.
Thrillers promote intense excitement, suspense, anticipation, anxiety, fear, and nerve-wracking tension. The point of our short film is to be entertaining so if we do execute our thriller well, our audience should feel these emotions. My only concern would be that the thriller could be corny or laughable. I don't want our piece to come across as a parody and I feel as if bad acting and poor camera work paired with poor sound elements will create that. It is our mission to make sure that our short film is not a comedy!
One of my favorite thrillers of all time is Jordan Peele's record breaking film, Get Out "a movie highlighting instances of racial alienation, which veil a plot to abduct young African-Americans." Get Out is the film that repopularized thrillers. It was also the first film by a black writer/director to make $100 million at the box office. The reason for it's success was because this Social Thriller resonated with many people through the topic of race, which is always a hot topic especially in America, especially now. Hopefully we are able to hit nerves the way that Jordan Peele did.
Sources:
Stepford Whites: On Get Out and the Social Thriller. (2017, March 30). Retrieved from https://www.comingsoon.net/horror/features/832123-stepford-whites-on-get-out-and-the-social-thriller
Thrillers promote intense excitement, suspense, anticipation, anxiety, fear, and nerve-wracking tension. The point of our short film is to be entertaining so if we do execute our thriller well, our audience should feel these emotions. My only concern would be that the thriller could be corny or laughable. I don't want our piece to come across as a parody and I feel as if bad acting and poor camera work paired with poor sound elements will create that. It is our mission to make sure that our short film is not a comedy!
One of my favorite thrillers of all time is Jordan Peele's record breaking film, Get Out "a movie highlighting instances of racial alienation, which veil a plot to abduct young African-Americans." Get Out is the film that repopularized thrillers. It was also the first film by a black writer/director to make $100 million at the box office. The reason for it's success was because this Social Thriller resonated with many people through the topic of race, which is always a hot topic especially in America, especially now. Hopefully we are able to hit nerves the way that Jordan Peele did.
Sources:
Stepford Whites: On Get Out and the Social Thriller. (2017, March 30). Retrieved from https://www.comingsoon.net/horror/features/832123-stepford-whites-on-get-out-and-the-social-thriller
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Hey!
Welcome to my blog, my name is Joanne! This blog is dedicated to documenting my journey of creating a short film. This blog will be the place where I can organize my thoughts and ideas, as well as express frustrations and triumphs. I am working with my two great classmates, Kylie and Taylor. I've worked with them on previous projects including an op-doc , however this will be the first project that we will all be working on for an extended period of time together. I am super excited to start this assignment, I know it will be long and ofcourse difficult at times, but I love a challenge!
A Level Media Studies is more enjoyable for me than AS was. In A level there is more independence to be as creative and innovative as possible. Of course with more freedom comes more responsibility but I am more mature than I was last year and I am ready to handle this task! We've decided to do a short film because Kylie, Taylor, and I have all greatly improved our video editing as well as filming. We have all also used different video editing softwares and a couple of us even have professional cameras so this short film would be a great opportunity to test out our newly acquired knowledge.
As I become more invested in this project, no doubt I will get back into the swing of blogging and become a better blogger than I am at this current moment. Last year I was not too great with time management and organization. Those are two things that I am focused on changing this time around. Planning is essential to creating something incredible, especially a short film. There is so much to take into account when creating a short film such as characters, settings, mise-en-scene elements, lighting, camera angles, time, etc.
Overall, I'm scared and excited to go through all of this again, my experience and night from last year will be an advantage throughout the duration of this project. I can't wait to look back at this post when this project is complete and reminisce on how amazing this learning experience was. Anyway, this welcome letter is already getting a bit too lengthy so I just want to end it by saying, thank you for making it this far and I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I'm going to. Welcome to my blog.
A Level Media Studies is more enjoyable for me than AS was. In A level there is more independence to be as creative and innovative as possible. Of course with more freedom comes more responsibility but I am more mature than I was last year and I am ready to handle this task! We've decided to do a short film because Kylie, Taylor, and I have all greatly improved our video editing as well as filming. We have all also used different video editing softwares and a couple of us even have professional cameras so this short film would be a great opportunity to test out our newly acquired knowledge.
As I become more invested in this project, no doubt I will get back into the swing of blogging and become a better blogger than I am at this current moment. Last year I was not too great with time management and organization. Those are two things that I am focused on changing this time around. Planning is essential to creating something incredible, especially a short film. There is so much to take into account when creating a short film such as characters, settings, mise-en-scene elements, lighting, camera angles, time, etc.
Overall, I'm scared and excited to go through all of this again, my experience and night from last year will be an advantage throughout the duration of this project. I can't wait to look back at this post when this project is complete and reminisce on how amazing this learning experience was. Anyway, this welcome letter is already getting a bit too lengthy so I just want to end it by saying, thank you for making it this far and I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I'm going to. Welcome to my blog.
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