back to pinterest i go

 Okay now that the characters are done and I've gotten completely obsessed with them, as one does, I've decided more or less how I want them to dress and everything. Since Grace won't really be in the film opening besides one Instagram post, I will probably just use a random picture of a Pinterest girl or something, no need for casting in that sense. But for Rhia, I need costumes for both her and her clones.

So the idea for Rhia and the clones (that sounds like an old rock band) is that whenever Rhia would be on screen she would be wearing purple, but whenever the clones are on screen they would be wearing red, even better if it's different clothes for each one but keeping the color red. This way it would be easier to distinguish between Rhia and the clones as well as help develop that tone through the colors (my goal :D)

✨Inspiration Boards✨

So as you can see, keeping the purple theme for Rhia and contrasting it with the red theme for the clones. Since I haven't discussed what kind of purple and red clothes my actress has with her yet, I'm considering any kind of outfit in that color scheme would work, as long as it is clear what the color is and what it is representing. (full post of chosen clothes and props coming sometime soon :D)

I've also started looking into what LED lights I'm gonna buy and what I want the room to look like, and here are a few boards for that.

✨Inspiration Boards✨

My idea is I will buy the LED lights (if completely necessary though I'll use some DIY lighting, hopefully, it won't come down to that) and the lights will kind of look like they are coming from outside the room maybe? I don't want it to look like there are LED lights in the room, I want it to look natural almost like the character's aura, but still making sense with the context because she's at a party, and y'know there are these lights at parties I think. 

But anyway, back to the point, whenever the camera is focused on Rhia the lights will be purple, and when they focus on the clones they will be red.

Location: My sister's bedroom

My reasoning to this is, well it is a party in someone's house, and she could've like went up the stairs and looked for an empty room to be alone and not overwhelmed and it was probably the house owner's room (which I've been thinking... it could be Grace's house 👀 could help develop the context for the plot of the movie).

i got the green light!!

 Yesterday I showed my teacher my script for the film opening and she really liked it 🥺 and it filled me with the fuzzy feelings of gratification :DD. I'm so excited and nervous about this project. My teacher seems to really enjoy it and I'm very happy about it but at the same time, I feel even more pressured to make it perfect. One thing to know about me is that I'm an overachiever perfectionist and if things don't go the way I intend them to go I get very stressed, but so far everything has been okay for this project and I'm very glad. 

Anyways, my teacher gave me feedback for the screenplay andddd I have revised it, and here is the new and probably last version of it :D any other changes will either be made on the storyboard or on the filming process. I had to cut the scene short and adapt some things because she said it was too long and would go over 2 minutes, but I really like the way it ended, better now than before.

She liked the color use and said that I should do cuts whenever switching between the clones and Rhia, as well as the shot where she will be sitting next to a clone, she said I should have someone else sitting there with the same shirt Rhia was wearing and then only film their shoulder so it gives off the impression that they are sitting next to each other.

She also gave the idea to the scene ending, where she will throw the phone across the room and the clones will disappear, and she will sigh and get up to grab the phone. And I said that at the moment I could have the title of the piece appearing on screen so that it is not the last thing seen on the screen and it blends well with the scene but also calls attention. For that, I will be needing big bold letters, so I plan to look for fonts later this week. 

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.