Call me Pinocchio

Me again!! Welcome back, guys! I really can’t explain why I’m all of a sudden starting to get such great new ideas, but I’m loving it!! So once again I need you guys to refer back to my storyboard as today’s blog is going to be about some scenes early on throughout our opening which is of Valeria. The scenes I’m referring to is of Valeria getting out of bed and changing into a whole bunch of different outfits. If you guys didn’t already know, the reason for this scene is to show her insecurities as she can’t make up her mind on which outfit is the right one. This could also be a stereotype and many teenagers are insecure about themselves and just want to “fit in.” As you guys can tell, Carlos and I put a lot of thought into the scenes we chose because, in the end, it all goes together to represent a typical teenage life. So now I wanna share the new idea I have in my head which is for the scenes of Valeria changing. So I was looking back at all the scenes and realized that the scenes were really slow and boring as Valeria was doing the exact same thing which was trying on a new outfit. Sooooooo the idea I have is to reshoot these scenes, that way we can have Valeria change a whole bunch of times like before but this time we would make the video a little fast pace to create excitement. This would create excitement for the audience as they would be curious to know what Valeria ended up wearing. In my storyboard, I had thought about just filming Valeria looking at the mirror after she had picked an outfit, but now I have the idea of filming her from different angles as well so that the audience can see her whole look. This would mostly consist of me filming her from the front as it would be the best angle.

So what does this mean exactly? This basically means that we just have to have more shots of Valeria from different angles (insert shots). We’re probably still going to use the first shots we took in the second meeting, only this time there is going to be more to see. Like for example, in our second meeting we didn’t really have Valeria change completely into all her outfit options, instead, she just held them over her, but now we’re actually gonna need Valeria to change completely(sorry Valeria)!

So I guess I kind of lied to you guys when I said in one of my blogs that we had finished filming… but hey, think about this way… our opening is going to be epiccc!




XoXo

SP

Let's get crazy!

Welcome back, beautiful people! So I want to start off by saying that things are going to get a little crazy in this blog as I just got a crazy new idea which could really work. So as you guys know from my storyboard, I was planning to start with an establishing shot of Valeria’s house to show where my film opening would first take place. Well, what do you guys think if instead, we start out with something much cooler? For example, a drone capturing her entire neighborhood and then starts getting closer to her house. I got this drone idea when I was hanging out with my friend, Francisco yesterday and he showed me a really cool shot that he had taken with his drone. Right away, I begged him if I could use it for my film opening and surely he said YES! I feel like this drone idea could really help our project look more professional, but it’s going to be tricky setting up a date to fly it because there can’t be too much or too little wind, which means it has to be a “perfect day!” LOL, do you guys get it? It has to be a perfect day just like the name of my song!!!

To be honest, the idea I had before of just filming a long shot of the house could still really work if the drone idea doesn't due to the fact that they can both be used to establish a setting. I really wish I could tell you guys what day we plan on shooting this, but I can’t because it all depends on the weather. The good news is that Francisco is my next door neighbor, so if anything I could just knock on his door whenever it is a good day and ask him if we could film that same day!

We plan to make our scene look something like this:

Down below is a picture of what a drone looks like:





XoXo
SP

The Challenge...

Welcome back, peeps! It’s THAT type of blog again….drum roll, please….. MEETING UPDATE!! So as you guys know from our filming schedule, Carlos and I had one more meeting planned for March 16th, 2019 from 3:00pm-4:00pm. To be honest with you guys, I'm actually really surprised Carlos and I have stuck to our schedule, well at least most of it. Anyway, let’s talk about our last meeting which believe it or not turned out great!! We finally got to finish shooting our last few scenes of Valeria, my main actress, and Carlos, who SURPRISE is the other actor in our film opening. Sadly, the reason why we got stuck with Carlos as our other main actor is because I needed to have a guy in my film that I trusted since I would be needing them numerous times just in case we need to reshoot or anything, so the only person who I knew would put a really good effort and that I could count on was Carlos, since I mean it’s his project also LOL!

Now back to our meeting update. So basically, I had to film both Carlos and Valeria for the last few scenes which were the scenes where Valeria sees Carlos outside his house and she obviously has a huge crush on him as she can’t take her eyes off of him and starts trying to impress him, but he doesn’t even notice her due to the fact that he’s on his phone and is waiting for his girlfriend, who of course just so happens to be a cheerleader. If I’m being straight with you guys, this was actually super challenging for me because I had to first film Valeria and then Carlos and vice versa a bunch of times!! It was so stressful!! Each time I would switch to the other person I had to make sure that the cut was PERFECT or else it would look messy! There were a couple of times where I just started filming a little bit earlier so that there was some space in the beginning which I’d obviously edit out later when it’s time for editing. So yea, I had to shoot everything like 3 times to make sure it would sync in perfect with the previous scene which was probably the hardest part of this project so far. Everything else went super well as Carlos and Valeria’s acting was on point…..well, at least Valeria’s was!! :))

Down below is a cute behind the scenes picture of Valeria from our last meeting, right before we started filming:

Until next time!!

XoXo
SP

Wake up!

Happy Saturday everyone!! So I wanna tell you guys all about how my Saturday morning went as I woke up and had some great idea flowing through my head. The new ideas I had in mind all consisted of additional scenes I could add to my film opening. This happened right when I woke up, so when I got out of bed, the first thing I did was grab a pen and pencil and started writing down all the ideas just so I wouldn't forget. Just in case you guys were wondering, my ideas were all coming to me during my dream as I was dreaming of my project. I can't really explain what was happening in my dream, but I know it had something to do with the fact that some of my classmates were giving me suggestions on better ways that I could start my film opening. For example, the one idea that got stuck in my head was when one kid recommended that I start with pictures of the main actresses life instead of just showing stuff in her room right away, as it portrays a better understanding of who she is and what her interests are.

So right after I wrote down my ideas, I grabbed my phone and called Valeria, my main actress, and asked her if she was free so that I could start getting these scenes on film right away. I drove to Valeria's house a few hours later and told her all about my new idea and she loved it! She started showing me all around her house where she had pictures of her with her family, of her as a little kid, and of her with her dance team. I told her that the pictures were exactly what I looking and that I knew they would help a lot with storytelling!

Take a look at some of Valeria’s pictures:





And here are some behind the scene pictures of me as I had promised:





XoXo
SP

TEAMWORK!!

Do you guys know what day it is? It’s FRIYAY which means that today's blog is going to be all about good news!! I wanna mention that today was the second time my aice media class met in groups to discuss any new ideas and any further progress with each of our projects. Basically, the purpose of having group meetings as I had mentioned before, is so that we can get feedback and new ideas from other people in the class. Each time we get in groups, my teacher puts us with completely different people, so that we can get opinions from everybody. I think that my group and I did a very nice job today in giving each other new ideas like for example, I helped two of my classmates come up with a better ending to their film opening as the ending they had in mind was more of a trailer ending, instead of an opening film one. We all went really into depth with each of our projects and explained to each other the plots we each had in mind.

When it was my turn, I talked all about my new ideas and about my storyboard and to be honest, thank god for this group meeting because I got so many new opinions on scenes I should add like for example in my storyboard I had planned to end with my main character falling into a puddle and then the title of the film would show up in the puddle, but one of my classmates suggested that it shouldn't end with the title. They gave me the option of introducing my title a little before the end, as it would be more professional since again it’s not a trailer!!. A good option they thought of was to show the title when the girl walks out of the house to see her crush or if I really wanted to show the title in the puddle, then I should add more scenes at the end like for example, have the girl walk back into the house and notice that her makeup was horrible or something near those lines.

Now I finally have a better picture of how my film opening should end thanks to these group meetings, which I hope we continue doing as they have come in clutch!!!

P.S. clutch is slang word teenagers use when something or someone comes in handy.


         

 

XoXo
SP

Meeting updatee!

It’s that time again!! It’s time for our meeting updates!! So as you guys know, Carlos and I had to reschedule one of our meetings because I had forgotten that I had SAT testing. We ended up rescheduling our meeting to this Wednesday, March 13, 2019. I want to let you know that our meeting went really well as we are more than halfway done with our filming!! We have one more meeting left which is where we plan to shoot our last few scenes, but I think that we are going to have to meet up one more time to make sure we have everything we need. So now I wanna talk a little bit more about our last shooting as the scenes we filmed were of the girl going to the kitchen and having a conversation with her mother. The purpose of the dialogue in these scenes is so that the viewer can have a good understanding and picture of the daughter and mothers relationship. The dialogue in our scenes consists of mainly of the mother and daughter talking about college and the reason Carlos and I choose this topic was because we wanted to show the audience what it’s like being a teenager as many parents tend to put a lot of pressure on their kids.

Now, I wanna talk about the representation of the mother in our scenes. Carlos and I were aiming towards the representation of a typical single white mother wearing an apron as she is cooking in the kitchen which of course is also a stereotype as that is what women are expected to do in a household. I wanna mention that I had to borrow an apron from my grandmother because I didn't have one at home. It was actually really funny having to ask her for an apron as she looked at me like I was crazy because she knows I don't like to cook, but don't worry I explained everything to her. Other than that, everything else went smoothly and perfect!

For more information about representation, I found a really cool link down below!
https://www.slideshare.net/khalfyard/representation-in-media-56064486 

P.S. stay tuned for my upcoming blogs as I will be posting behind the scene pictures of me filming in our past few meetings!!



XoXo
SP

Khalfyard Follow. (2015, December 11). Representation in Media. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/khalfyard/representation-in-media-56064486

God bless, they said YES!

HI GUYS!! I'm excited to announce that… the company Rock Mafia finally answered us! So as you guys know, the first company we emailed which was Hoku, couldn't really help us due to the fact that they did not own the access rights to the song “Perfect Day.” Although this didn't turn out the way Carlos and I wanted it to, we did not give up. Based on the contact information Hoku gave us, we were able to find Rock Mafia, which as I said in my last blogs, is an American record production/songwriting team who just so happens to own the access rights of our song! I finally found their website and clicked on contact information which provided me with many of their social media like for example, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I tried finding their email first because that's what I thought would be the best way to contact them, but I was wrong because many days passed and they still hadn't answered. Getting desperate, I aimed to contact them through their social media as well, so once again I sent them the same message I had sent them through email which asked for permission. I tried all 3 social media pages just so there was more of a chance that they would answer. I emailed them on Saturday March 9th, 2019 around 6:00 pm and they finally answered me around 9:00 pm that same day. Guess through what social media page? INSTAGRAM!!

As I saw opened their message, my heart was pounding because if they were to say no, Carlos and I would have to find another song and what worried me is that we wouldn't find one as perfect as this one. I opened the direct message and they said…….. YESS!! OMG, I couldn't believe my eyes, I was so happy that we got that out of the way and didn't have to stress about it anymore! I called Carlos right way and told him the news which made him as happy as I was. We are now one step closer to making our film opening perfect!


Take a look at our conversation:




XoXo
SP