Homestretch!

 CCR:

-Draw My Life: questions 1 and 2

I took inspiration from a youtube trend from a while back where people would draw their life stories and I thought this would be a really cute way to display my project! I already have some digital art experience from before and this just made it easier to do. Plus drawing my story was actually a lot of fun since it's a very eventful story. I used the app PicsArt to draw and it has a feature to record the drawing which was super helpful. I also was able to speed it up so that you wouldn't be able to tell that I was drawing slowly. then I just put the drawing clips together on iMovie!

FanMail: questions 3 and 4

This is a common celerity interview type of video. I watched harry styles and I was inspired by that video. i made some fake envelopes from fake fans and then just opened them on camera and answered the questions. This was really easy to do. 

The CCR was actually my favorite part of this whole project and it was so satisfying to see it come together and it made me feel accomplished and very proud of morgan and me. 

Filming day 2

close up of Elke with bruise. 

We filmed a lot! We got the bulk of our scene done and are pleased with the results, considering we barely had a plan. We took a lot of takes.

Morgan doing makeup. 

 We had my sister there so we could film the kidnapped conversations and she did great and her makeup was done by Morgan. This was so easy to do since my sister had a really big eyeshadow palette that we could use and my dad provided us with the chair, the duck tape, and the rope! 

We also had another friend there that we could ask for opinions and show her the takes which was really helpful. 

I had to do the scenes many times because I am a very awkward person. BUT we persevered and the scenes worked out really well and we were happy with the results. There might be some parts that we could refilm but honestly, the takes we have are pretty good. 

Next, we have to film the actual rambling scenes. we left those for another day because we both know that I am going to need many retakes for that amount of craziness. 

Overall it was a pretty successful day and on Sunday we will finish it hopefully. The rest of our focus will go toward editing and starting our CCR. We are almost done! 

Filming! Day 1 Review!

We filmed the phone scene and all that's left to do is do the voice-over part with morgan's voice. 

We did many many retakes today. This was mostly a planning day. We just wanted to see how the scenes would look and where my placement would look best. We also got most of the shots of the details today. The close-ups of stuffed animals, dolls, the shrine, and more feminine things around my room. 

We filmed many little details on my walls. Pictures of scarlet and i, the shrine, flowers, dolls, stuffed animals, post its on the wall and more to emphasize the setting. we will also include some of the hostage when we film with my sister.

Reflection of Melanie's Mind

We created a playlist! All of these songs were carefully examined and chosen specifically to fit the vibe of our film opening. We think this makes it easier to visualize what we want our final project to embody. This also helps us understand our character more. we will listen to this playlist while we film to help get us in the mindset of the characters and the story. 

these are lyrics that inspired us and that we think fit best for our character and story. 

"She's mine you stay away from her"- pierce the veil 

"they made you blind, messed up your mind but I will help see" -meant to be yours from heathers the musical

"all for you. never not for you" manta rays chloe moriondo

"don't blame me, love made me crazy"- don't blame me taylor swift 

The Devil's in the Details

This was our first-day filming and we really focused on testing shots for the first part of our scene and getting as many shots of my walls and props as possible. We made sure to focus on the little details. 

 We made sure to get consent to use my friend's pictures for the shrine of Alyssa.

Shrine! 

Choosing the pictures of scarlet from memories was fairly simple. I have been friends with her for a while so I have A LOT of pictures with her. It just looks crazy when you put them all together at the same time. The scrapbooks were actual gifts from Scarlet and I just changed the names to fit. This helps add to the obsession. The dried flowers also signify that this has been an ongoing obsession for a very long time. There are many polaroids and pictures around, a little stuffed animal, and just overall many things that show she's really in love.  

 

We carefully selected books we wanted in the frame and meticulously selected small details to include in the shrine. Things such as concert tickets, amusement park and fair passes, and notes from Sarah to Melanie were added to the shrine. 
Changed the phone case to include details since it would be in the shot. A picture with Scarlet, a hand-made gum wrapper heart, and a fortune that reads "Love because it is the only true adventure". These items add to Melanie's love for Alyssa and the lengths she'll go to for this "adventure".

filming schedule

03/14/23- filming! planning A LOT of planning. 

03/15/23- editing

03/16/23- filming with hostage

spring break- mess around w diff types of editing

03/26/23- filming rambling

03/27/23- voice-over recording in class 

last week CCR prep

This is a simplified version of our schedule for the next couple of weeks. we made this on our first day of filming since we were finally able to get an actual idea of how our plans would go since Morgan will be going out of town next week for spring break. 

This makes it easy for us to plan ahead and around our designated filming days. This also gives us enough time to edit and revise our final product!

It also gives our other actors time to prepare and make sure that they are free for their roles and we can practice lines if needed. (Running lines will be easy since she is my sister). 

Fit Check!

 We tried a lot of different outfits for this and these were our main competitors. We decided on a dress! 

We chose this butterfly dress because it signifies feminity and innocence. she is meant to be a character that does not look like she is going through anything. She is effortlessly put together and calm and collected while dealing with situations until she is faced with an obstacle. We think that putting her hair up in a messy clip will create this cute, messy, effortless look and allow her personality to shine through a little bit. Clipping her hair up will also allow us to make her take it out in preparation for the coming of her cop sister. This will lead to Melanie having to physically cover herself up for the arrival of Lizzy. The butterflies can also represent a coming change and evolution for our character in the film. Also they add to the emotional aspect of the film because of the popular saying "butterflies in your stomach". 

Blog Inspo

Today in class we reviewed different blogs people have kept in the past and I was really inspired. there were so many good examples and they were so intriguing and aesthetically pleasing to look at. They are what I aspire this blog to look like. 

There was one blog in particular, frameisokay, that was really cool. He had a playlist literally embedded into his blog post. We were able to scroll in it and actually click the songs. 

Morgan and I were talking about how we want to maybe do this with our scene. We think having a playlist to represent what our scene would be is a good way to represent what we want. 

I think making our blogs more personal is really a good idea and it will help bring our project to life. 

cast list!

We had initially said that my friend would be cast as the hostage but now we have decided on my sister. This is mainly because of our scheduling. We think that since the scene mainly revolves around me rambling we do not need to have that many with the hostage. This also makes filming really easy since we'll be filming at my house so my sister will just have to be there. 

We have also finally named our main character! Her name is going to be Melanie. We have decided to take inspiration from Melanie Martinez because she has the vibes we want for our main character. 

Melanie Martinez Inspo

So now we have all of our characters!

Main Character: Melanie- played by me, Elliette.

Sister (cop): Elizabeth(Lizzie)- played by Morgan (not pictured, voice-over)

Love interest: Alyssa- played by Scarlet (not acting, just in pictures) 

Hostage: Sarah- played by Elke.

script !

Working on the script right now! 

We are basically acting out the scene in a straightforward way so that we can make it sound conversational. We realized that I was better at the actual dialogue aspect of the script and morgan was better at the technical parts of it. This will make it easier to act it since I can improvise much easier and still fit into the scene since it's my own commentary being used. 

The script is not done yet but I'm excited to continue adding to it, it's really coming together. Morgan has experience with creating scripts and adding the technical parts of it which makes it so much easier to create it. 

This is a part of our script! it's even pink to match our main character's vibe

Making a script is a lot easier than I would've thought so I am glad that this is not going to be such a stressful part of our project. I am also so glad that I won't have to completely memorize the lines since I can improvise some parts of it really easily. Delivering the lines is my new issue though it should not be as hard as it could possibly be since I will be able to be more playful and crazy rather than intimidating and serious.

 

Location Scouting

 

Morgan's room

My room

We were deciding between what room we wanted or if we wanted the living room for our scene but we both decided that doing it in my room would be the best choice.

My room has many more toys and pictures that we could use for the effect we want for the character. also, my room has more floor space and we can easily rearrange if we need to.

Doing this in my house also gives us access to another actor, my sister! 

I'm excited to start filming. We have also been thinking about what decorations we are going to add because we are going to need more to create the correct environment. For example, more pictures of whoever the love interest is going to be in order to emphasize the obsessive nature of our main character.

I think we are going to start filming on Sunday early so that we can have all day to film. We need to focus on the time so that we can ensure we have natural light and that we don't have any drastic lighting changes during the scene. 

We are going to focus a lot on the stuffed animals and the personal items so that we can add more than just dialogue/ monologue to the scene. 

Group Discussions!

This post is a little late but better late than never

We finally met in class the other day with other people to get criticism and suggestions on our idea. They suggested we focused more on the dialogue of our movie since that is mostly what our scene will consist of. They were also very focused on us not having a title still but I think that we can worry about that closer to the end. 

I also realized we are significantly behind in terms of the actual development of the project, some of the people in our group already had scripts and titles and more developed stories overall. I think Morgan and I need to focus on having a totally concrete idea instead of just abstract thoughts and parts of the scene.

I know for sure we want to incorporate montage scenes in the opening so that we can change up the scene and it's not just the MC rambling and pacing on screen the whole time. My group also agreed that by having still shots of the setting I could establish a background story (like with pictures of the childhood best friend, since she's not actually a talking character.) 

Morgan's group suggested we make the detective related to the MC so that there is an actual excuse for her to be coming over instead of just a random detective visiting. that way it further shows that the MC is delusional and paranoid. 

Creative Critical Reflection

This part seemed the most exciting to me?? I learned what it was in class the other day and it’s so interesting. I’m excited for our piece to come together in a way that makes these questions fun and interesting to answer. The most intriguing thing is the fact that we have to answer the questions using 2 different medias.

It also made me realize that if we mess up it’s okay as long as we plan accordingly. The CCR is meant to highlight the whole process even the mistakes and setbacks.  

The example videos that our teacher showed in class really made what was expected so much clearer. I especially like the 73 vogue questions video, it was fun and creative and it kept people engaged. 

She gave us a lot of tips and the one that seemed to be the most important was to create a script!! I can’t just wing something like this and it’s just better for everyone to have a plan! 

I know we’re a long way from this part of the project but I’be been thinking about what I could do for it. A podcast sounds like a pretty cool idea and it’s possible to do or maybe an interview or like a 21 questions game with someone, I’m not sure but these are some ideas! 

This part gets me more excited for the actual project which is ironic. I am just excited to be able to reflect back on this and see that it all came together.