I GET TO DO THIS AGAIN

HELLO HI since on my script I mentioned another character called Grace Hudson I needed to create her character which I was more than glad to do :D. So I would like to present to you, the fruity cottagecore icon, Grace.

Grace Maryna Hudson

Age: 17

Appearance: Long light brown hair, green eyes, light skin, and slight freckles.

Personality: A very nice and kind soul, always carries flowers and Chapstick in her pockets. Will do anything to help a friend in need or just be there for everyone whenever they need her. She’s very much a people pleaser and constantly thinks about what others think of her, trying to be her most perfect self. Cares too much about social media and followers for her own good, because she believes the more followers she has the more people love her. Overall, very bubbly and lighthearted. Diagnosed with ADHD.

Vibes: Picnics, flowers, ducklings and fluffy cows, green and pink, peaches and pink lemonade, hand-made gifts.

Backstory: Grace often believes she needs to be perfect because her parents constantly compare her to her older sister Maya, who is very successful, in college, and what Grace cares most: loved. When Grace got diagnosed with ADHD at 14, she felt the pressure double. Her parents treated her like she was sick, and she knew they thought she would never be as good as her older sister, so she does everything not to ask for help and ends up overwhelmed. She is friends with everyone, and at the same time feels very alone. She doesn’t share her feelings with her “friends” and sometimes resorts to online strangers just to get some things out of her chest. 

✨Mood Board✨

Grace will be Rhia's love interest, both girls will be going through sexuality crises at the same time (yay representation!!) Wlw couples are getting more representation nowadays but for a long period of time, while different sexualities first started being accepted into media, it was only mlm couples, and very much stereotypical ones too. I would like my piece to correctly represent different sexualities in the LGBTQ+ community and help teenagers who possibly could be going through this themselves.

Here are a few songs that remind me of Grace:

Love Grows- Edison Lighthouse  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyuesQIIiLo

Sunkissed- Khai Dreams  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws_DdM2k32c

Bloom- Paper Kites  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4XdnD5c334

Sweet Creature- Harry Styles  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d8tMJn5VNY

Graceland Too- Phoebe Bridgers  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUEIfN6Fr40

Porcelain- Mxmtoon  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCTmLy4i_c8

Mirrorball- Taylor Swift  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaM1bCuG4xo

This is me trying- Taylor Swift  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bdLTPNrlEg

Unspoken words- Mxmtoon  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P1_QFpShww

She- dodie  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmDBSYR585g

music and effects searching

Welcome to the start of my music-seeking adventure *cue Indiana Jones music*
No, but really this is gonna be hard because I... have no clue what song I wanna use yet. Yes, I know it'll be some sort of electronic/instrumental because it's copyright free and it's a party song you know? Those are usually electronic. But also I have no clue what good websites for copyright-free music are so it is time for a little research.

I found this website called Uppbeat that required a subscription but I'm looking for some electronic music right now. I want to choose a song that I could possibly match my editing pace to, but at the same time not distract the audience from the main plot of the scene. 

Update I'm vibing too hard these are so cool I FOUND ONE THAT MIGHT BE PERFECT I am making a list.

-Pixel Bullet by Bosnow: gives me so many Euphoria vibes and honestly just so vibey I'm having a great time, and towards the end, I could try the match the editing pace with the songgggg I like this. 
I'm sobbing, crying on the floor, the song is only for premium users 😭. I don't care if I need to pay for this I will honestly. It's also only a minute and a half long so I would have to mess with it a little and loop it maybe.

-Menace by All Good Folks: honestly didn't intrigue me too much at first but it has grown on me. I can match the editing pace pretty well I think and I like that at one point it seems to stop and then continue and I could use that at the point where Rhia accidentally calls Grace... Hmmm, still a work in progress but A good song. ALSO, IT'S FREE SO THAT'S A PLUS.

-Creep by All Good Folks: it's so interesting sounding and not at all what I was picturing for this movie at first but honestly I like it a lot. It takes a lot of twists and turns and so does the scene and it matches the atmosphere, definitely an option. It is only for premium though 😔.

Those are all the ones I could find and like at the moment but I will keep researching and updating this as I go, and I will probably choose the song during the editing process because I want to see which song would fit better.

Now I know what you're thinking. "Julie, did you really only install you're editing software now?" Yes, I did. To be fair, I have been using Da Vinci Resolve this whole year okay! And I have chosen Adobe Premiere Pro for this project (since the school provided it for us) and I've never used it before! I was scared! But I'm finally gonna try and learn how to use this software and report my progress here so stay tuned for that. 
But anyway, the reason I'm installing it now is that I realized I want the music in my opening to be muffled, and I have no idea how to do that in the editing process. So I'm researching how to create that effect with Adobe Premiere Pro (which is currently loading and on 8% something tells me this will take all night). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zo9fXqoKys

I have found this video by Mike Russel in which he shows really clearly how to get the muffled audio effect on Adobe Premiere Pro, the only thing is I need to download the presets he showed and I'm not entirely sure if they are free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNBEaZMcD48

I also found this video that explained even more how to use the low pass filter for Premiere Pro, especially how to change the muffled level when opening a door which is what I will be doing so I really liked this video for that reason.

I've been searching for half an hour and I cannot find this low pass filter 😭 I'm gonna wait and see if it comes with Adobe Premiere Pro for some reason and if it doesn't then I'll ask my father to help me find it, he's better at technology stuff than I am. But essentially that's the muffled effect I need to use in my piece, and I hope I can find it because I would really like to learn how to use Premiere Pro as my main editing software. 

a bare-bones outline

 Oh my god, this is my second favorite part of the project!!! Fun fact, one of the things I've considered doing after graduating is screenwriting (actually the reason I joined this class 👀) and I think it's so fun. It was definitely a lot harder to write than I thought it would be, but it took me no time to research all the rules of formatting I needed to follow.

Through my research, I learned that:

I'm writing something that is ultimately going to be audio-visual, and that has a whole host of implications. As a screenwriter, I need to have certain obligations to fulfill:

• Follow universal scriptwriting conventions;
• Format the script correctly;
• Strive to meet the demands of the people I'm initially writing my script for: directors, producers;
• Strive to meet the demands of the people I'm ultimately writing the script for: the audience. 

Standard Screenplay Format:

• 12-point Courier Font"
• 1.5 inch left margin
• 1-inch right margin (between 0.5 inches and 1.25 inches), ragged
• 1 inch top and bottom margins
• Around 55 lines per page regardless of paper size. This excludes the page number and spaces after it
• Actor parenthetical (wrylies) 3.1 inches from the left side of the page (1.6 from the margin)
• Dialogue speaker names (in all caps) 3.7 inches from the left side of the page (2.2 from the margin)
• Transitions are capitalized (sometimes important props, sounds, and camera movements)
  
• Dialogue 2.5 inches from the left side of the page (1.5 inches from margin)

Keep in mind this is the first-ever screenplay I've written, and a lot is subject to change if I think different shots or lines look and sound better as I'm filming and editing. This is basically a spec script, the bare-bones outline of the scene.

I'm so excited!!! Expect there to be a new revised version of the storyboard up sometime next week probably and maybe a revised script soon as well!

Sources: 

https://industrialscripts.com/screenwriting-guide/

https://www.nfi.edu/screenplay-format/

https://www.nfi.edu/screenplay-examples/

http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/mean_girls.pdf

https://www.ivanachubbuck.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Good-Will-Hunting-Entire-Screenplay.pdf

https://stephenfollows.com/resource-docs/scripts/eternal_sunshine_of_the_spotless_mind.pdf

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-write-text-messages-in-a-screenplay/

my pride and joy

 KLJASDF this is literally my favorite thing in the world- okay okay relax!!! I'm here to announce I have!! Finally!!! Created my character!! I also finally got a cast! Since my piece really only requires one actor, I reached out to a fellow student who agreed to be the actress!! Woo!! 

You don't understand how excited I was about finally being able to write my character. I love writing characters so much I think it's my favorite part of any creative assignment!! (I totally don't have a Pinterest account with over ten boards just for characters I've created, what?)

By the way! This is another part where my friend (the same one that helped me come up with the scene idea) helped! She helped me with the mood boards and songs <3

Rhiannon "Rhia" Park

Age: 17

Appearance: Short curly brown hair, African American, glasses and brown eyes, tall.

Vibe: Cool tones like purple and blue, night sky full of stars, dancing around in the kitchen at night, Taylor swift’s Seven, soft lavender and stuffed animals, picnics, and blue skies.

Personality: Very kind soul but a people pleaser, she worries a lot about what other people think of her and lets that take over her life. She will go above and beyond to help her friends, but she’s often taken advantage of. Suffering from anxiety, she has a small group of friends with who she doesn’t really feel connected and often thinks they would be better off without her. She doesn’t feel like she belongs in any group, even in her own culture. She feels invisible and tries to stay that way, she doesn’t like drawing attention to herself. Also dealing with possible sexuality crisis!!! 

Backstory: Rhia comes from an African American family living in a small town in Georgia. Her mom is successful, and she has a good life. Health care, two sisters, one parent, a house, even a dog. Unfortunately, her dad walked away from their family when Rhia was 12 years old, but her parents had been fighting every day for as long as she could remember. As the older sibling she’s always had to take care of her sisters and assure them everything would be okay, but hiding her feelings and worries caused great repercussions (pressure like a drip drip drip-). Her sisters look up to her and the pressure to be perfect has overwhelmed her to the point where she’s terrified of trying new things because she’s afraid she might fail. She’s scared of meeting people because she’s afraid they’ll all leave like her dad did. She developed anxiety at a young age but never wants to be a burden for her mom and so she never tells her what she goes through and doesn’t ask for help. 

✨Mood Boards✨

The first mood board represents who Rhia is as a person. It's her aesthetic, her personality, and her appearance. It's how she presents herself to others and how she wishes others to see her as. I associate her with the color purple and will be using this color scheme whenever she is present during the film.
The second mood board is what Rhia deals with inside her head. It's her struggles, her thoughts, her anxiety. All her struggling, the ugly parts of herself that she doesn't let show, the parts that overwhelm her. I will be using this color scheme, red, whenever the anxiety clones of Rhia are present during the film. This will help with distinguishing what's real and what's not, as well as serve as symbolism for her true self versus her fears.

Here are a few songs that remind me of Rhia: 

Seven- Taylor Swift  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEY-GPsru_E

Two- Sleeping At Last  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrDzd4ufypE

Brutal- Olivia Rodrigo  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM2U8cb8lhI

Jealousy Jealousy- Olivia Rodrigo  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-9gQjUZMm0

Garden Song- Phoebe Bridgers  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RI-lYOiUUk

Kyoto- Phoebe Bridgers  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyymaQkjzas

Comfort Crowd- Conan Gray  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJBtUAG8e5s

Amoeba- Clairo  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q-rpq-BYRs

Hunger- Florence + The Machine  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3qgzL8D-dk

Numb Little Bug- Em Beihold  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flV7ZcRIoq0

i'm so sorry for my drawing skills

 Today I decided that the three most important things I need to get done are the storyboard, casting, and location scounting. There's a lot on my list that I cannot do before I get these three issues resolved, and so the easiest thing for me to do at the moment was the storyboard.

Keep in mind these are rough drafts of what my actual storyboard will be, they are mostly for me to have an organized mental image of the shots I will be needing for my film opening.

Explanation of scene: This scene will star a character with anxiety as I have mentioned before. They will be at a party, therefore there will be blasting muffled music on the background. They have locked themselves in a room because they feel overwhlemed and needed to get out of the party they were dragged into. They sit on the floor of the room and start texting someone (yet to be determined) and what this scene will portray is what goes on inside the mind of an anxious person when they have to deal with social interactions. One by one, random copy or clones of the main character will start appearing in the room with them saying bad things and speaking over each other. They're supposed to symbolize the overwhelming thoughts that an anxious person has to endure everytime they make a decision. These voices and clones will be excruciating to the chracter to a point where they just cover their ears, having some sort of anxiety attack, and scream, but there's no sound, just the blasting muffled music from the party, and will cut to a black screen with the title of the piece.

As I said a lot of this is subject to change as time goes by and I choose my actors and my location. It will also change during the filming process as that is simply natural for a better looking piece. What I think is a smart choice about my shots is I utilize a lot of close ups. These will help build suspense and that sense of overwhelmness the character is feeling and that I want the audience to feel, same goes for the voices all overlapping each other. It is supposed to be a chaotic yet simple scene, one a lot of people will be familiar with. 

finally putting my photography skills to the test

 Lighting is a very important part of film production yet its rarely talked about or given any importance. Any scene's mood and tone can be set through lighting schemes. One misbelief I had is that I needed a very good camera to produce a good quality film and that is not the case.
"A film shot on a cheap DSLR can look excellent with good, well-thought-out lighting. A film shot on an expensive camera will look like amateurish garbage with poor lighting."  -Nick Larovere

The key steps in the lighting process are:

• Identify the requirements
• Determine the method of lighting
• Select the lighting equipment
• Calculate the lighting parameter and adjust the design as required

(Disclaimer: yes I know that website is not about production lighting but they have good tips for lighting regardless and here is what I gathered from it) 

Breaking down these steps from Electrical Engineering Portal, they basically say that you need a plan before jumping into picking what lighting products you're gonna use. First steps say determining what you will need for the scene you are recording. Consider what tone you want the scene to set. Will it need high-key lighting or low-key lighting?
After realizing that you can select the lighting equipment you're gonna use, and it does not need to be the fanciest lights you could afford, any equipment available to you can be used and produce a good quality film if you know how to. You must learn how to opperate the equipment obviously, and also consider using different colored lights to set tone, and that can be done by something as simple as placing a colored sheet over the lighting equipment you're using.

Why is lighting important?

• Lighting tells the audience where to look. The lighting setup guides the eye to a specific actor, prop, or part of a scene.
  
  
• Lighting reflects the psychology of characters. The amount, size, color, and harshness of light surrounding a character can be adjusted to match their emotions.
  
  
• Lighting defines and supports the genre of the film. Lighting is the tool that conveys mood most clearly. For example, one of the film genres most known for its distinct lighting style is film noir, characterized by stark contrasts between light and dark, dramatically patterned shadows, and unique framing and composition choices.

Since my scene will be shot at a dark room with the only light coming from the character's phone screen, I researched how to film a scene in a dark room. One good thing about this is that the focus of the scene will be on the character's face, which is ideal. 

Here are things I will need to consider:

• Arranging the lighting in a frame
• Adjusting the white balance
• Beware of casting shadows
• Focus/brightness 
• Consistency is always key
• Find props that are already at the location

Fortunately I took creative photo last year at Cypress and I remember all the different tips and tricks for Iphone's camera settings, and will be using that to my advantage. For example, since the rest of the room will be dark but the phone I can set the focus of the camera on the outside to make it darker and turn the brightness down and if needed I will research more tips for filming with an Iphone. 

Sources: 

https://nofilmschool.com/cinematography-techniques-lighting-darkness

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/film-101-understanding-film-lighting#12-film-lighting-techniques-everyone-on-set-should-know

https://totalstoryteller.com/set-tone-with-color-light/

https://electrical-engineering-portal.com/7-key-steps-in-lighting-design-process 

why is representation important?

 "Representation is how media texts deal with and present gender, age, ethnicity, national and regional identity, social issues, and events to an audience. Media texts have the power to shape an audience's knowledge and understanding of these important topics." GCSE Media Studies Revision - BBC

Basically, representation is the way that media creators CHOOSE to portray reality or aspects of reality. It usually includes: race (biology/ethnicity), communities, gender, sexuality, and events (representing society in a "prettier" way.)

What impacts these choices?

-Ownership: companies have a lot of power when choosing what they want to be portrayed in media, and each company will represent different topics in different ways. 

-Creator bias: anyone creating any content will be biased towards it because they have their own opinions on the subject, and that is what happens to many media produced by these companies.

-Governing factions: the government of different countries has different laws that enable them to restrict media from being allowed in their territory. For example, Russia has laws against expressing sexuality and restricts every form of media that portrays the LGBTQ+ community. 

-Majority rule: at the end of the day, these companies will produce and distribute media that they know will attract the audience, they want success as a lot of these companies care more about money and company growth, unfortunately. 

Historically, many groups have been underrepresented in western media, and those are LBGTQ+, people of color, range of body sizes/types, people with disabilities (big one!!!), people with mental illness (my topic!!!), and the elderly. 

Additionally, more so in the past than now, a lot of media makes use of stereotypical roles for characters in their pieces. 
"These are a simplified representation of a person, groups of people, or a place, through basic or obvious characteristics - which are often exaggerated. They can be used to describe characters quickly, relying on existing audience recognition. Stereotypes are dangerous as they can lead audiences to generalize about people or places."

"Stereotypes in media are often inaccurate and portray underrepresented groups in a negative light."

 "Common stereotypes of Arabs in Western media include the Arab man as a terrorist or an oil-hungry sheikh."  -Arab Film & Media Institute

Stereotyping is not something I will rely on, as it can be very harmful and have people feel extremely unrepresented, which is the opposite of what I intend to do. I want people to relate to my piece not feel like they are being made fun of. It is very unfortunate that various coming-of-age movies tend to do this to attract their audience with "comedy characters," with roles such as the bully, the queen bee, the nerd, etc. 

Typecasting is another problem encountered in many media forums and happens specifically with actors.
"Typecasting, which generally refers specifically to actors, is when a person is repeatedly assigned the same type of role due to success with that role in the past or because they “look like” a specific stereotype. " 

This can be extremely harmful to society and actors who think they can never play roles they want because they will always be cast to roles of their ethnicity, race, or similar. 

"Actor and comedian Aziz Ansari wrote a piece in the New York Times about the struggles he’s experienced as an Indian actor, and he touched specifically on typecasting. He wrote, 'Even though I’ve sold out Madison Square Garden as a standup comedian and have appeared in several films and TV series, when my phone rings, the roles I’m offered are often defined by ethnicity and often require accents.'" 

How will I approach representation?

I intend for my piece to have solely accurate representation, and feature minorities and communities like the LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and/or mental health issues, and depending on the actor I cast, people of different races as well. No stereotyping or typecasting will be done, people will try out for the roles they desire and they will get it if they are the best actor for that specific role according to their skills, not their looks. Of course, I won't cast a white American for a role of an African American, for example, but I will let people try out for the roles available to them. 

Sources: 

https://www.racetoacure.org/post/the-importance-of-representation-in-media

https://arabfilminstitute.org/what-exactly-is-media-representation-anyway/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9fx39q/revision/1#:~:text=Representation%20is%20how%20media%20texts,understanding%20about%20these%20important%20topics.

we're about to tackle a lot

 I don't even know where to begin- OH! Okay, so I've decided that I have a lot to write about over the course of the next couple of weeks so I made a little schedule for myself!!! 

Woo!! Finally, I feel better about this project and all I needed to do was be a little more organized :D but anyway, I'm going to post a new schedule every week with what I intend to blog about each day and hopefully follow through with the plans.

As you can see today I'm researching my chosen genre, my target audience, and I'm writing an analysis on different coming-of-age movies, hopefully finding some guidelines for me to follow when writing my own coming-of-age film opening.

3 Characteristics of Coming-of-Age Movies

1. Character growth: These films usually follow a character realizing their future, which leads to their development from an innocent child to a perceptive young adult. The films focus on the characters’ mental, emotional, and personal growth. It deals with their life struggles as they mature and how they interact with their environment. It is pretty popular amongst teenagers for that reason. 
   
   
2. Dialogue: Coming-of-age films focus on the interior lives and emotions of the characters, rather than an outside action or adventure that’s driving the narrative. These films feature more dialogue and moments of stillness than dramatic actions or events. Often this genre of movies makes use of the character vs. self or character vs. society conflicts, as the protagonist is growing up and having to deal with the consequences of their actions and make life-changing decisions. 
   
   
3. Social commentary: Coming-of-age films address issues that teens face today, like coming out in Moonlight (2016), teen pregnancy in Juno (2007), or race and violence in Boyz n the Hood (1991). These movies can be controversial and risky to produce, but it is important that people understand that society is changing and an abundance of issues that were never addressed in the past are more accepted now. This genre of film can be really relatable to teenagers and young adults.

"In this context, it’s quite common and logical that most of these stories revolve around the high school years, especially 12th-grade senior year. Leaving the comfort of home and making a decision that will impact the future of your life, is a setting simply too perfect for a portrayal of character growth."

"It potentially provides you with a clear setting, identifiable protagonist’s goal – the struggle for their own personal growth and a host of supporting characters to further test your character writing skills with."

-Industrial Scripts (both)

At times coming-of-age movies also incorporate comedy aspects, as the character is immature, has a big ego, and is very susceptible to peer pressure, but overall it talks about serious issues and social concepts. Many of these movies, however, incorporate stereotypical characters, like the popular girl, the jock, and the geek, but I don't intend to do that with my piece, I want it to be more realistic than funny.

My conclusion from this: my character will be a 12th grader in a small town's high school (I feel like that's how most movies go for some reason)... or should they be from a big city like Miami? ...Hm...TBD for now. Anyway, like I mentioned previously I want my character to suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, an introvert who forces themself to be an extrovert but ends up with bad social anxiety and that's how they start the movie locked in a bathroom having an anxiety attack of some sort. 
It will follow them as they progress through their senior year but also have some flashbacks to their childhood, elaborating on the reasoning for their self conflicts and mental disorders. Their set goal will be to graduate high school, of course, get into their dream college, but they will also struggle with their love life and sexuality crisis (representation post coming soon!) I think it's really important that I make this movie as relatable as possible for gen z teens, which brings me to my target audience. 

Target Audience - Gen Z

As I previously mentioned this movie will be set on modern times and follow the life of a Gen Z teenager, and so many of their struggles will be relatable to Gen Z teenagers, but I expect it to be relatable to late Millanials and also early Gen Alpha. As a Gen Z teenager myself I can safely say we are neglected constantly for having a "safer" and "easier" childhood than older generations, which I can understand, but what they don't see is how much this technological era has made growing up an extremely difficult time for us, with depression, anxiety, and suicide rates skyrocketing, and the constant thought of having to maintain a perfect online presence. It's really important that these issues are acknowledged through the media produced nowadays so that Gen Z teens don't feel alone with their feelings and thoughts, they feel heard and represented.

Analysis/examples of coming-of-age movies targeted to Gen Z teenagers: 

Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart (2019)

Brief Synopsis: It is an unfiltered comedy about two graduating high school seniors, named Amy and Molly. It’s not until the eve of their graduation that these academic overachievers come to realize all the fun and excitement they have missed throughout the past four years. As a result, they set out to break their own rules in a night of chaos and partying. This movie successfully reaches its target audience of Gen Z teenagers through a combination of witty dialogue and an endearing friendship duo. It fits the coming-of-age genre because it follows two main characters through their high school graduation, a time of constant change and life decisions that can be extremely relatable. They deal with multiple different life issues and conflicts, such as love, but never abandon each other's side.

Greg Berlanti’s Love, Simon (2018)

Brief Synopsis: This film adds an interesting spin to the classic coming of age story by centering around Simon Spier, a closeted gay high school boy who struggles to find a balance between his family, friends, and secret love life. Simon finds solace by exchanging back and forth emails with an anonymous classmate who also shares this same secret. But right when he thinks all is going well in his life, Simon is threatened to be outed to everyone he loves. Throughout the film, we see Simon come to terms with his own sexuality, once he realizes that all of his friends and family still love him just the same as before he had come out.  It was the first movie to feature an LGBTQ+ protagonist, which is quite shocking. It shows the struggles a young queer person goes through and Simons coming out story, which is characteristic of a coming-of-age movie. Love, Simon was the first time that mainstream media portrayed this community through a sweet and warm-hearted story - one which young queer people can somewhat identify with and watch for years to come.

Stephen Chbosky’s Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

Brief Synopsis: We first see Charlie begin his freshman year of high school after being discharged from a mental health care institution. Being the shy and socially awkward person he is, Charlie initially has difficulty making any friends. However, once welcomed by two charismatic seniors - Sam and her stepbrother Patrick - Charlie’s life seems to be heading in a positive direction. Ultimately, they help him discover the joys of life through friendship, music, and love. When this trio isn’t performing in their regular Rocky Horror Picture Show, you can find them going on adventures throughout Pittsburg, discovering underground music, or attending artsy, outsider type parties. Their friendship supports Charlie as he confronts his depression and anxieties, by teaching him to embrace who he is rather than trying to repress how he really feels. I'm taking a lot of inspiration from this movie as it accurately depicts what it’s like to struggle with self-confidence issues and mental health as a young person. It's main conflict is Charlie vs. his own anxiety which is extremely relatable and the route I'm taking. The film shows how those suffering past trauma can overcome their personal battles by finding a supportive community or group of friends with whom they are able to be vulnerable and feel listened to, which is an important message for Gen Z (and other generations to come).

Other coming of age movies:

• The Breakfast Club (1985): Arguably one of the most well-known teen films and coming-of-age films, John Hughes' movie is set one weekend where a group of teens from different backgrounds are trapped together in detention.
  
  
• Boyz n the Hood (1991): This film was John Singleton's directorial debut, and it centered on young Black men living in Los Angeles.
  
  
• Almost Famous (2000): Directed by Cameron Crowe, this film follows a fifteen-year-old as he tours with a rock band for Rolling Stone magazine.
  
  
• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005): This heartwarming film, based on the book of the same name, follows four young women and best friends as they navigate family conflict, first loves, loss, and growing up.
  
  
• Superbad (2007): The film follows two nerdy teenagers who want to party and lose their virginity before high school ends.
  
  
• Boyhood (2014): This coming-of-age movie from filmmaker Richard Linklater was filmed over twelve years. It follows one boy from age six to eighteen.
  
  
• Moonlight (2016): This film follows a man through three stages of his life—childhood, teenage years, and adulthood—as he slowly comes to terms with his sexuality.
  
  
• Call Me By Your Name (2017): This Italian-set movie is a love story, following the relationship between a young man as he falls in love for the first time.
  
  
• Lady Bird (2017): Lady Bird is Greta Gerwig's solo directorial debut. It follows a teenage girl applying for college far from home in New York and navigating a fraught relationship with her overbearing mother.
  

Sources:

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/coming-of-age-movies#3-characteristics-of-comingofage-movies

https://industrialscripts.com/coming-of-age-movie/

https://www.unpublishedzine.com/film-1/coming-of-age-films-for-gen-z

i blame euphoria for this

It's to no surprise that a teenager like myself would have watched the popular HBO Max show ✨Euphoria✨, which is a pretty controversial show. But one thing I love about it is its visuals. Sometimes I ignore the plot and just admire how they use color and lighting to develop the tone of each scene and each episode, as well as developing characters and their feelings. I've been addicted (no pun intended) to the second season of the show and I put two and two together: if I need to write from what I know, then what do I know better than teenage drama and trauma? 👍 So there you have it folks, here begins my journey to create the next coming-of-age teen drama that focuses mainly on the struggles of the modern life of teenagers and how this internet-based world affects their, our, mental health. 

Scene from Euphoria: 

In this scene, the director utilizes the abundance of the color purple to express royalty, richness, and eroticism. It is developing the character as someone who is brave, powerful, wealthy, yet also erotic, even for someone who does not watch the show and does not know the character's backstory with men. 

Because I'm an incredibly curious person (sigh) I jumped straight to researching color in the creation of movies, and to my surprise came across a variety of articles in which I chose to read further into. 

"The definition of Film Color Theory is a theory that states that certain colors in film elicit certain emotions from the audience. Manipulation of these colors can be used to guide the audience toward the intent of the author, juxtaposed against one another to send a message, or subverted to create dramatic irony." -No Film School 
https://nofilmschool.com/Film-color-theory-and-color-schemes

What this quote basically means is that colors and lighting in a production can unconsciously achieve a mood for the audience, for example, if the main color in a scene is blue, it is likely that the audience will feel sad, or feel the depressive tone of the piece, and sometimes without their acknowledgment. What I seek to accomplish with this is that in my piece I want the audience to feel overwhelmed alongside the character (I wanted to do something that relates to how someone with anxiety feels) and have the scene slowly go from a depressive blue to a burning red of madness and anger. 

When telling a story, colors:

·         Elicit psychological reactions

·         Draw focus to significant details

·         Set the tone of the movie

·         Represent character traits 

.         Show changes or arcs in the story

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-use-color-in-film-50-examples-of-movie-color-palettes/ 

As I said previously I want my piece to evoke feelings in the audience without them really understanding why, maybe they'll think they're empathizing with the character, but in reality, they'll be relating themselves with the character. Most teenagers nowadays have felt this anxiety or fear of what the world and the people on the internet think of them, and I want my piece to address that. As the lights shift from blue to red we'll also see the change of the character's mental state and emotions as they become more and more overwhelmed. 

I want to use blue as the main color for most of the opening because the character will most likely suffer from anxiety, and in this particular scene they'll be sad, anxious, scared, depressed, and just really tired, and I feel like blue paired with lowkey lighting would be the best options for the tone. 

Some examples of Color Theory being used in movies are:

In M. Night Shyamalan's movie The Sixth Sense, (picture on the right) the red-colored door is used to represent fear, dread, and foreshadowing; but in Gary Ross's Pleasantville, he uses red to represent hope, love, and sensuality. 

Now the movie, The Passion of Anna, directed by Ingmar Bergman, utilizes a change in color schemes throughout the movie to juxtapose two different sub-plots. The color red represents the passion of the relationships and the violence towards the animals.

"Bergman (or perhaps, cinematographer Sven Nykvist) establishes the emotional connotations of red in a beautifully simplistic change in color: in a sequence between Andreas and Eva the color changes from the cold blues, to hot reds, only moments after Eva kisses Andreas’ cheek for the first time." -http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/10-great-movies-that-use-color-to-signify-a-change-in-narrative-or-emotion/ 

I like the example of The Passion of Anna because the scenes not only utilize mise-en-scene elements with the juxtaposed colors but the overall look of the different scenes of the movie are in those colors, and that is more similar to the approach I decided to take with this project. Here's a picture as an example.

Sources: 

https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/film-movies-color-psychology/ 

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-use-color-in-film-50-examples-of-movie-color-palettes/

https://nofilmschool.com/Film-color-theory-and-color-schemes 

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/10-great-movies-that-use-color-to-signify-a-change-in-narrative-or-emotion/ 

https://www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-purple-2795820 

how the heck do I make a movie?

 I'm not gonna lie I'm tired of being formal and thinking about my writing too much so!!! Welcome!!! You're about to enter the insane world of a mentally ill Latina!!! No but seriously this is going to be one heck of a ride so get ready because once I start writing all my thoughts there are three things guaranteed:

1- You will go insane

2-You will regret reading this

3- You may want to be my friend and in that case hi :D 

Welcome to

THE FILM OPENING PROJECT 

There's something you should know about me and that is I am extremely creative, no I don't deny it I know I am but my god do I have the most complicated ideas to produce.

But you know what!! I'm not gonna be the only one to suffer now!! Because you're here!! Yay to you!!

At first, my mind flowed with multiple different ideas for the project I'm not kidding I have a whole document with different ideas (proof on the right) but I kept giving up on them because they were either hard to produce (film or edit) or I just couldn't make a story with them.

A wise person once said: Write what you know.

That wise person just so happens to be Andrew Stanton, yes the guy who creates movies for Disney's Pixar ((here linked is the TED Talk that I watched about him). And so I thought "Hm, it would be smart to follow this very successful man's advice huh?"  

And so I thought about might ideas, eliminated some because, well I'm not a criminal on the run am I? ...I promise I'm not... 

ANYWHO, I decided I couldn't do this without first knowing what exactly is expected on a film opening. And so I went on https://www.tstok.net/2020-2021-portfolios  and took a look at other film openings and blogs from students of past years. I found some that I really liked and one of them had some YouTube videos that really helped. I searched up some videos myself as well and took mental notes of all the things I needed to know before developing my story. 

(Acess the videos by clicking on the highlighted words or following these links) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ2UtHMtOZk&t=1s&ab_channel=TheCloserLook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZhFtd1QZWc&ab_channel=NowYouSeeIt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw_ysaoVlt4&ab_channel=StudioBinder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMloPfr5ES8&ab_channel=ImaginationUpgraded

What I liked about these videos is that they gave me the basics of what a film opening should have, but did not set specific rules. As the "How to Begin a Movie" video said, there aren't rules for film making, but there are guidelines, which often can be broken and can create incredible movies, but it is very risky to do so and personally I will probably follow those guidelines. Better safe than sorry!!!

Even after researching the topic, I was still having trouble with coming up with ideas that would be doable for a 17-year-old high school student with no budget or much experience at all. After much struggle, I decided to go on a call with a friend and try to get different ideas and opinions on what I should do. We developed that list more and she actually helped me so much. She said that a coming-age movie would be the easiest to produce and report to, and you can still create mystery in its opening.

We both really liked the idea of using color to set the tone of the movie, and I'm thinking about buying some LED lights for it... not really sure. I also wanted it to be set in modern times because the main goal of it would be to show the struggles of someone suffering from anxiety and other mental disorders and how they navigate in this world where everything is done online. People can be anonymous, cyberbullying exists, and everyone holds this fake image of themselves online to make others feel less-than and how that has a toll on someone's mental health. 

I've also begun thinking of the editing process. Yes I know it's a little early for that but I think it's important to think with the end in mind, meaning I can't plan for this super intricate effect-filled piece if I have no way to edit it correctly. I will probably get Adobe Premier and watch video tutorials on different editing techniques to get used to it before having to edit the actual project. 

That is all I have for now but expect multiple postings throughout this whole process because I need somewhere to share my thoughts and organize my ideas and, well, seeing as you're still reading this, you want to hear them!!! Good luck!!!