Not My Type

 As the deadline draws closer, my anxiety levels begin to take a sharp pivot upwards at surprisingly alarming rates.  April 4th; less than a week from today.  And still, I need to finish filming half of my project, edit (both visuals and sound), select a font, insert the cast and crew credits, and create my CCR from scratch.  Needless to say, I'm a bit worried.

Now, I know that admitting to missing half of my project is foolish.  One could easily read this and say, "why didn't you film it sooner?"  Honestly, sometimes I find myself wondering the same... Regardless, what's done is done.  Unlike the restaurant scenes (which took about an hour and a half to film), the missing two scenes are only a few moments long, and I've decided to film them both at my house.  The scene of Joseph waking up and getting ready, which I had already filmed on an iPhone, will be re-shot.  This is due to the contrasting quality and definition of the scenes, which is stark and immediately noticeable.

Therefore, knowing that I will already have Joey and Ren over at my house to film this, I decided to just kill two birds with one stone and film the scene between Joseph and Father Peter as well.  Originally, filming this scene at my house was something that I wanted to avoid.  I feared that the setting would resemble that of a home instead of an office or ministry, and that the effect on the audience would be lost.  However, as I'm fighting against time, I've decided to just settle with it.

However, without half of my project, editing has been slow.  I've managed to edit the restaurant scenes down to a point where I am satisfied, but I still need to color-grade the footage and add background sounds, which is something that I intend to work on as soon as I finish pressing "publish" on this very blog post.

As I take my attention away from editing and on to other post-production aspects, I've decided to focus on creating my title page.  Because the content of my film is quite harrowing and dramatic, I wanted these same traits to be reflected in my font selection.  Instead of going with something more whimsical and light-hearted, I looked for more poignant and frail font types.  This led me to craft a selection consisting of thin lines and sharp edges, although I played around with some calligraphic fonts as well.

Using this website, I browsed through some community-created fonts (all copyright free) and was left with the four pictured above.  I liked these for the same reasons I just listed, but also because they feel fancy and quite professional.  Additionally, I messed around with some fonts on Adobe Illustrator, although none of them quite hit the same (and are quite honestly not even worth mentioning.)  Torn between the first and last fonts pictured, I ultimately selected the first one, due to it being more legible and less extravagant.

Knowing that I wanted this font for my title card, I decided to also include it in my credit sequence.  Using the same website, I browsed through some more fonts, looking for one to use for my cast and crews' names.  This time, I browsed through fonts with bolder, stronger elements.  I wanted to create a contrast between both, while still having them be complementary to each other.  After some tinkering around, I produced a credit layout that I was satisfied with:

To finalize my decision, I inserted this into Premiere, and messed around with it a little to see how it would look in the final production.  The final product is something that I'm extremely satisfied with, and it honestly makes me a little optimistic about how the production will look in the end.  Heres a little sneak peek:

In the end, I still have a long way to go.  However, I feel like some progress was made in this decision.  For now, I'll focus on color-grading and sound editing, and I'll be back soon with (hopefully) more progress made as the deadline aproaches.

Editing

Despite my long and dramatic monologue about the trials and tribulations of being a Media Studies student in one of my latest posts, I actually have been enjoying myself this spring break.  Because of my pretty loaded schedule, I've been struggling with finding time to work on my production.  As of now, I have relatively little left to work on, and little time to accomplish it.  However, these tasks require a lot of attention, and they're better done sooner rather than later.

Primarily, I need to film the last scene of my intro, which features Joseph's first encounter with Father Peter.  This scene only takes up a few seconds and should be wrapped rather quickly.  However, the issue arises in the fact that I still haven't been able to find an office setting where I can film, and that my dad (who plays Father Peter), would need to find an hour or two of free time in his schedule to come film with us.  Regardless, this scene is quite important, and I want to get it filmed as soon as I can.

The second thing that I need to check off my list is that I need to create a title card for the movie, and I need to start selecting fonts and text placement for the credits.  However, I'll do that once I'm done editing.  This leads me to my last and certainly most important point: Editing.

Although I started editing my production already, I am incredibly unsatisfied with what I have thus far.  The scene shot on the iPhone is very noticeably different from the one shot on the Camera M50, and the change is throwing me off.  Additionally, I've been finding it very hard to edit the scenes using the monologue/score as a reference.  Instead, I'm considering reworking the audio to best fit the scenes once I have them all cut together.

The editing process

Some good news, however, is that I've been working on color-grading the footage that I know will for sure make it to the final piece.  Changing the color settings to create a more dull appearance is something that I wish to do both as a stylistic choice, but also a metaphorical one.  As Joseph describes the adversities he must overcome in his life, I want the audience to see his depression manifested on the screen.  Here's a look into what I've been changed:

Before

After

Still, this is just a work in progress.

Day Two of Filming!

Progress has been pretty slow recently.  After filming the first batch of scenes on Wednesday (which was the most time-consuming and stress-inducing by far), I've taken things pretty slow.  On Thursday, I was reunited with Joey yet again after he came over to my house to film his own production with my good friend Mica.  Joey's production is about an edgy aspiring musician, and I guess that he just found my room to be stereotypically emo enough (ironically, this is the second time that my room has been typecasted like this for a Media Studies project).

Anyway, while Mica and Joey were shooting some footage, I was hard at work downloading all of my files and importing them into Premiere Pro.  This sounds like an easy enough task, but actually took a good while considering the length and size of the videos, as well as the fact that my PC isn't exactly an editor's dream.  As soon as I managed to get all the files in Premiere, I noticed immediately how slow the app was working.  Having never experienced any problems of this kind before, I was struck by them now.  Mainly, I noticed that the "File" tab wouldn't even open, which made me anxious over the app crashing, and me losing all the progress I had made.

As soon as Joey and Mica finished filming all their scenes, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I had Joey with me and film another one of the scenes for my film.  This was a risky choice, considering that I didn't have Ren's camera with me, and that my main actor was wearing different clothes.  The second problem was pretty easily overcome, as my brother happened to have the exact same beige crewneck that Joey wore throughout the first day of filming.  However, there is a shot where you can clearly see that he's wearing a white shirt underneath.  This is a huge continuity error, as Joey was wearing a dark brown shirt on the first day.  When I noticed this, I asked him to wear the beige crewneck by itself, and managed to minimize the damage (to an extent).  Regardless, I fear that this will be seen as unprofessional and sloppy.

Yet, the biggest issue is the fact that I didn't shoot the footage on Ren's camera.  Instead, I filmed on Joey's iPhone 13, which has a superior camera quality and looks pretty professional.  However, when I imported this new footage onto Premiere, the contrast to the other footage was stark.  In comparison, the new scenes looked blurry, overexposed, and overall just not up to par.  I can see only two ways out of this: Either I ask Joey and Ren over and re-film everything, or I just live with it.  Although I would feel extremely annoying if I were to re-shoot, it might be for the best.  Additionally, I have one more scene to film involving Joseph and Father Peter, and I could kill two birds with one stone by filming them all on the same day.  Updates to come!

Me directing Joey (taken by Mica)

Day One of Filming!

Spring is finally among us; flowers bloom, skies are blue, birds wake me up with their chirping.  The night comes later now, and the sunlight shines over us like a guardian angel.  It's a beautiful season, made even more so with the arrival of spring break.  A week off of school, perfect for day trips to the beach, hangouts with friends, dips in the pool.  A week free from homework and school projects, a week of total rest and relaxation... At least, for students who aren't taking Media Studies.

While most kids right now are enjoying their time off, lazily basking in the sun and sweating in the 90-degree heat, I spend my days crouched over my computer screen, furiously writing blog posts and ignoring the pleading cries of my loved ones to take a break.  The daylight slips away from me, but still, I refuse to take a sabbatical.  I work tirelessly over candlelight into the wee hours of the morning; I work until I forget what I'm working for.  Sometimes, I feel like my labor is fruitless.

But, other times, I see the shining light at the end of the tunnel.  Finally, my hard work has solidified itself into something real, something tangible.  Well... as tangible as a video can be.  

Me and Ale

After days of working to create a schedule -- factoring in work, trips, and overall availability -- we were finally able to film on Wednesday afternoon.  The cast and crew consisted of an odd group of characters.  That is, a series of friends that I never thought would be in the same room together.  My friend Joey Coste, who's playing Joseph Farley, was obviously a given.  However, I also needed a dude to play Joseph's crush, who later turns out to be a bit of a homophobic bully.  Originally, I was going to get my little brother, Lucas, to take on this role.  Yet, after some complications surrounding his schedule, I panicked and called my friend Ale last minute.  I thought Ale worked well for this role, as he's pretty good-looking, and also looks a little older than the rest of us.

Ironically enough, my brothers' plans ended up falling through last minute, and he was able to tag along as Ale's friend.  Finally, my good friend Ren came along with us, as she's helping me with cinematography and teaching me how to use her high-quality camera.

In the end, the filming went great!  I was able to get some incredible footage, and we were able to wrap everything up in under 2 hours.  Additionally, I'm pretty sure that I got all the shots I needed from the restaurant scene, which is relieving, considering that I had to film the music video project over the course of 3 days...  Although filming isn't complete by any means (I still have 2 more scenes to film), I consider today to be a huge success.  Finally, I must admit that as tedious as it was, the storyboard came in clutch.  It was a huge help to have a detailed plan of all the shots I wanted to include, as well as their composition.  Although, perhaps I'll just make a shot list for the next project.

With that aspect now done, I'll dedicate the rest of my week to filming the last two scenes, and to begin editing it all together.  Finally, here's one last picture I got that shows the actors sitting down and Ren setting up the tripod.

Lucky Token Productions

Hello again!  In a previous blog post, back when the project had just been assigned, I mentioned that I wanted to include a production company logo at the beginning of my film.  I found this to be a good way to engage the audience before any of the footage is even shown, and I also believed that it would give it a more professional feel.

Now, having yet to film my footage and feeling the need to catch up in other ways, I believed that this was a good time to get started on this.  When looking at the logos of some well-established production companies, I noticed that many of them had simple black-and-white designs.  I liked the simplicity of it, and I also considered how much easier this would be when compared to a fully rendered animation.  With this in mind, I got to work. 

Almost immediately, I came up with the name "Lucky Token Productions."  I wanted to incorporate some sort of animation into it, as I thought it would be an added touch of creativity as well as an effective method of drawing in the audience's attention.  My mind immediately went to a spinning coin, and subsequently, the name "Lucky Token" was born.  Now having a pretty broad idea of what I wanted, I opened Adobe Illustrator and messed around with different fonts.  

Visually, I thought that these five were the most appealing.  I chose bold, blockier fonts that had straight lines because they had a stronger, more dominant feel to them.  For a production company, I thought that it was fitting.  I ended up selecting Franklin Gothic for the final product.

With that done, I moved on to the animation.  First, I needed to come up with a design for the coin.  Again using Illustrator, I played around with the shape and text tools to create a cool sort of eye token.  Next, I painstakingly spent the following hour and a half rendering the coin from every view-point until I was left with 16 drawings that together made a spinning token.

Afterward, I spent the following hour and a half after that arranging all the coins in place and saving 16 different .pdf images (one for each frame).  It was tedious work, worsened only by the fact that when it came time to upload them into Premiere, I realized that the app doesn't accept 

.pdf images...  

Still, it was an easy enough fix, and I went back and saved every image as an Illustrator (.ai) file instead.  Now having uploaded this new batch of images into the editing software, I got to work on arranging them in order and cutting down the time they were on-screen to mere milliseconds.  This quick, short progression is what gives the illusion of movement.  However, I kept the clips kinda long as a stylistic choice.  While editing this all, I realized that the background looked much grayer than it did when I was editing it on Illustrator.  It did strike me as weird, but not enough to be suspicious.  Looking back, I should have realized that my computer was against me from the start... 

When I exported the final project and sent it to my phone to watch from a different device, I noticed that not only was the gray background not a visual illusion, but also that the quality was horrible.  To replace the odd-colored background with the original black one, I had to go back to Illustrator and save the 16 images again, this time as a .eps file.  Then, I went back to Premiere and re-edited everything using the new photos.  

Finally, after about 3 hours of work, I was left with this 2.13-second clip that everyone will likely forget about immediately after seeing it!  Regardless, it's a small personal victory for me.  I can't help but admire my perseverance (or is it stubbornness?) and attention to detail.  Hopefully, it wasn't all in vain... Anyways, here she is!  Presented to you in all her 2.13-second glory.  Enjoy. 

Scoring Big

Having not yet filmed any of my scenes, I'm putting a lot of importance on editing Joey's monologue.  This monologue makes up about 90% of the production and is by far the most important element when factoring in the worth of the words and how it sets up the premise for the rest of the film.  However, a slight issue arose when I realized that my friend Joey, who's playing Joseph, didn't read the lines the way I pictured them in my head.  Despite trying my best to direct him, this final product was still not something I am completely satisfied with.

Therefore, editing this aspect became extremely crucial.  I pieced together the lines of dialogue that I liked the most, changed the volume of several clips, and even cut out some lines definitively; I call this: Frankenstein's monologue.  However, even Frankenstein's monologue wasn't the final product.  Although it was definitely an improvement from the original draft, it was still messy and odd-sounding.  Therefore, I turned to music to provide a distraction.

This is around the point in which I turned to my father for help.  Along with being Father Peter, my dad has also been tasked with the act of creating a score for my production.  Music has always been his passion, having been in several bands throughout his life, the latest of which you can find here.  Knowing that he's very interested in music (and that he's good at it too) I asked him if he would be willing to make the score for my production.  Of course, he was more than eager to help!

Having finished editing the monologue, I sent it over to him for him to tinker with.  In just a few hours, he had come up with a soundtrack.  Although I thought it was good, I made notice of a few things that I wasn't 100% on.  Mainly, I noticed that the full audio was 2:27 minutes long.  Considering that my absolute time limit is 2:30, this is far too long.  Immediately, I asked him if he could shorten this.  I also noticed that Joey's speech was very echoey, which I didn't like too much.  Similarly, when discussing the song itself, it was a bit upbeat and hopeful, whereas I wanted something darker and more dramatic.

First draft that my dad sent me

Finally, I asked him if he could rework the score with this feedback in mind; we ended up sitting down together and making the necessary changes.  Here are some things that were changed:

• Instead of piano, we used guitar for the melody
• Added a lot more synth
• Added some bass for rhythm
• Changed the key from major to minor
• Shortened it to only 2:01 minutes

After these changes, I was feeling a lot more confident about the production.  I feel like the score is a perfect mix of dark ambientals (while not being too horror-like) and melodic tunes (while not being too cheery).  I feel like the music expresses the vibe of the production fairly well, and I also appreciate being able to have my own original score, as I think that it adds a nice extra touch to the film.

Overcoming Difficulties: Part 2

This project, although forward in nature, has been anything but simple.  Going into filming, I've been faced with a few pressing issues.  Primarily, I'm suffering from a lack of filming locations, a priest's robe, and a cross necklace.  Additionally, it remains an issue that I haven't filmed yet, as I'm running dangerously close to the deadline.

In my last post, I discuss feeling lost when seeking locations.  I reached out to Starbucks, who denied my request, and I'm still waiting for the library to process my call.  As I waited, I decided to reach out to my manager and ask him permission to film at our store instead.  Immediately, he said yes.  As I'm running short on time and need to get back on track, filming this week is imperative.  Therefore, I decided to get most of my footage done on Friday.  By filming on Friday morning (before many customers start flooding in), I have time over the weekend to export my footage and begin editing.

My friend Ren

As the writer and creator, it's only natural that I direct this production as well.  However, as I have very limited experience with TV production, I requested the help of my friend Ren, who is in my school's TV production program and is a multiple-time #1 National winner.  Ren specializes in camera work and composition, which is why she'll be helping me as my cinematographer.  Additionally, she can provide me with a superior quality camera and mic than what I could come up with, which will allow my production to go above and beyond.  We'll most likely be filming with either her Canon M50 or our friend's T7i camera, both of which give the footage a crisp quality.  As I personally don't know anything about cameras, I'm leaving this selection up to her.

Additionally, some headway has been made in regards to the priest uniform.  I was originally planning on going to a thrift store and purchasing a black button-up, but in the end, I was unable to do so.  Instead, I asked my dad for a look into his closet and decided to work with what I had.  Among the Hawaiian shirts and the paint-stained tees, I surprisingly found gold.  I picked out a black polo, a short-sleeve button-up, and a blazer.  I outfitted him in these, tucking a strip of white cardboard from a nearby box under the collar.  We tried both the polo and the button-up, ultimately settling on the former as it was a better fit, and the buttons weren't too noticeable.  The blazer went on top, thus disguising the short sleeves.  In the end, we were left with what I considered to be a pretty solid priest uniform.

In recent news, I believe that I have come up with a name for my production.  I really liked the name "Without Sin," which is one that my dad suggested in passing.  Although he was just thinking out loud, I ended up really liking this title.  I like how it indicates a character arc that the boy will go down to free himself of sin, while also implying that it was never there in the first place.

Encountering Difficulties: Part 2

Hello again.  First of all, today is my birthday!  Second of all, let me update y'all on my progress.  As I briefly mentioned in one of my last posts, I've been emailing some establishments near my house in order to acquire permission to film.  Specifically, I've been talking to the Starbucks near me, as well as my city's library.  I ended one of the last posts by stating that I was waiting for their responses, which I subsequently received just a few days later.

Immediately, Starbucks denied my request to film.  The rejection stung a little, but at least I had another option to fall back on.

My reaction to Starbucks' rejection

Instead, I began focusing on my communications with my city, Weston's, public library.  However, this also led me directly to another roadblock.  Ironically enough, after having established a pretty solid line of communication with them, I receive a very troubling email: I had been contacting the wrong Weston, and instead was seeking permission to film in a library in Connecticut.  For reference, I live in Florida...

However, this only fueled me to become more insistent on filming at my library.  I proceeded to contact the actual Weston Library near me and ask them for permission to film.

This led me to what can only be described as a wild goose chase, where I proceeded to email, call, and visit a myriad of different people.  However, after being led on for almost a week, I decided that the plan might not work out.  Therefore, I turned to my last resort: my own place of work.  Although this was likely the easiest option as I'm almost guaranteed permission to film, I put it off for a variety of reasons.  Primarily, this location doesn't fit the mental image I had of the restaurant.  Also, I did think that it would be pretty embarrassing to film in front of all my coworkers... Regardless, this is what it ultimately came to.  

To avoid too much of the restaurant's beachy decor, I plan to film tight mid-shots and close-ups.  The tables are well-spaced apart, though, and I can very easily execute the scene.  Also, I have a 50% discount for food there, and can easily feed my production crew :)

I texted my manager this morning, and I still await his response.  Still, I'm pretty confident that this path will yeild positive results.  I still want to film inside of the library though, and I was instructed to call them back on Monday.  Therefore, I'll update on this soon.  Until next time!

Joey's Monologue

Despite having most of my ideas fleshed out, I have yet to develop a filming schedule or even receive permission to film inside any of privately-owned locations... This, naturally, has put a wrench in my plans.  So, instead of sitting around waiting for an email back (and risk falling behind), I decided to call my friend Joey and have him record the monologue.

The night before, I had texted Joey asking him to send over a recording, but the audio just wasn't quite sounding like I had imagined in my head.  As I like to say, Joey sounds like a So-Cal surfer dude who's recording a YouTube vlog intro.  Although this is definitely helpful for other aspects of life, his voice doesn't fit the mental image I had made for Joseph's character.  In my head, Joseph is devoid of any emotion or emphasis in his voice, and instead says things very matter-of-factly.  This was something that I discussed with Joey during our call.

shoutout to Discord

After some direction and various attempts, we had finally gotten a version of the monologue that I was satisfied with.  However, after uploading it to Premiere Pro and beginning the editing process, I encountered some issues.  Joey had spoken the monologue only once, and then had repeated certain phrases that sounded off to me.  This was great in the moment, since it took up less time and we could work on the lines more specifically.  However, it was only as I was editing this together that I noticed the obvious changes in volume.  Additionally, Joey's voice still maintained his surfer bro tonality.  At one point, I even considered having another friend do the V.O., and just picture Joey on-screen instead.

shoutout to Premiere Pro

Yet, I relented.  I'm still in the process of piecing this whole thing together, but it's been very slow-going so far.  In good news, though, I think I found some music!  My dad, who's a musician, has offered to make the score for my production.  As soon as I finish editing the monologue, I'll send it over to him, who'll make a sort of ambiental-yet-ominous background music.  However, as of now, I have enough on my plate.

Discussing Titles

Having now wrapped up pre-production practices, I'm moving on to filming.  However, as I delve into filming and editing, I also need to start looking into possible titles.

This is a part of the production that I put off for as long as I could, but now the time has come where I can no longer ignore it.  Because I never explicitly state in the script that Joseph is gay and undergoing conversion therapy, I plan to use as many on-screen cues as possible to imply this.  This will consist of the priest's presence, as well as the production's title.  With this in mind, I turn to my friends to brainstorm movie titles that are both subtle, yet impactful.

Here are some ideas that they threw around, which I kinda liked and can plausibly build on:

• Repression / Suppression
• Repent
• Sin (Unforgiving Sin)
• Refraction
• Choices
• Butterflies

I quite like the idea of "Refraction," a word which, in physics, means reflected light changing directions.  My friend suggested this idea, as it can signify Joseph's life taking different turns, and can also imply something like a broken mirror.  I also really liked the idea of "Butterflies," since it metaphorically represents nerves/excitement, but also represents a metamorphosis and change in character.  However, I fear that this meaning might be lost to my audience.  Another one of my friends suggested that I use a play on words for the title, which is cool in theory, but much harder to come up with in practice.

As of now, I have yet to come up with a solid name, although I do feel like some progress has been made.

Props and Location

I'm now at the point in this project where I am beginning the production process.  Ideally, I wish to begin filming next week, but there are a few boxes I need to check beforehand.  More specifically, I need to gather props, finalize costume design, and find locations for filming.

Costume design and prop direction are two of the most important aspects of my production, and they go hand in hand.  Joseph is a modest and unassuming kid.  To express this in my production, I want him to wear muted colors; beiges, whites, dark greens, and other clothing that doesn't have graphics.  If possible, having Joseph wear a plain white button-up would be ideal, as it is a perfect church-going attire and also demonstrates his nerdy personality.  The most important part of Joseph's appearance, though, is a cross necklace that he always wears around his neck.  However, my friend Joey (who's playing Joseph) doesn't have a cross necklace we can use, and neither do any of the men in my family.  

Friend #1

Therefore, I turned to some of my friends who I know have religious backgrounds.  Still, more often than not, this led to dead-ends.  After asking around 5 people, none of which led to any viable options, I started getting a little worried.  Finally, though, I came up with a solution.  My brothers' best friend, whose family we've known since childhood, is always dripped out

Friend #2

wearing a cross necklace.  Knowing that his family are practicing Catholics, I turned my inquiries to them.  I asked his sister (who happens to be one of my close friends) if they had a necklace they could lend me, and my brother reached out too for good measure.  And just like that, my problem was solved.

Additionally, I texted my friend Joey to question him about his wardrobe.  He confirmed that he had white t-shirts and a cream-colored crewneck, but no white button-up.  Although this is a setback, I can definitely find one for him.  If not, the shirt isn't crucial to the production anyways.  

Cassock

Moving on, another crucial piece of wardrobe/prop design is the priest uniform.  Because I never explicitly state that Joseph is gay and undergoing conversion therapy, I need as many on-screen context clues as possible; the main one being the priest.  Since it's very improbable for me to find an actual church office to film at, costume design rather than set location will be telling the story.  Unfortunately, I don't have a priest uniform at hand!  To avoid spending $300 on one, I came up with the idea to wear a black button-up, and tuck the collar under a strip of white fabric. Another problem arises here, since, once again, I don't have a black button-up.  Still, this is easily fixed.  I plan to go thrifting next weekend, and while there, I can pick up a Size L Men's black button-up.

Finally, the last prop I will need is a book.  Because the book is shown on-screen a few times, I wanted it to hold some importance.  When I asked around for ideas, I got some -  very interesting - responses.  Despite these being good recommendations, I wanted my production to maintain a PG rating, and I also wanted something more classy.  So instead, I turned to my own bookshelf.  After browsing through some (arguably) queer-coded and pretentious books I've read recently, I found myself face to face with Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club.  Below are some quotes that I found that could work well with the production if they were to be underlined in Joseph's copy of the book.

And now finally, we reach the final and most-dreaded aspect of pre-production: Location scouting.  Although one of my scenes originally takes place in a restaurant/coffee shop, getting permission to film might be harder than anticipated.  However, I decided to get ahead by emailing the Starbucks management team for permission to film, as well as my city's library as a backup.  They have yet to respond, but I anticipate some sort of reply in the near future.  Some may call me optimistic, but I like to think of it as manifestation instead.

Additionally, I also need a setting that I can use as Father Peter's office.  After discussing this with my father, he suggested I use the walled-off study rooms at the library.  This seems like a very promising idea, considering that if I film the other scenes there too, I could be killing two birds with one stone.  But, until they respond, I'll stay hard at work brainstorming other potential avenues I could go down.  

Regardless, I think I did a pretty good job of gathering props and setting the production in motion.  Hopefully, I'll have a response by next week, and I can finalize the filming schedule.  Until next time!

Storyboarding: It's Like a Boring Comic Book

I've just finished creating a visual outline of what I want to include in my production, despite the warnings of all my friends who are much more experienced in TV production than me.  Although they all like to say that storyboards are time-consuming and ultimately useless (which, to be fair, they're probably right), I kind of enjoy the process.  It gives me time to brainstorm ideas, uncover cool production techniques that I can implement, and it facilitates editing overall.

Thus, I got to work on making one.  Although I'll most likely end up changing a lot of the shots I originally included (mostly by fixing composition, duration, or the order of events), it serves as a great outline.  Here it is below:

With this finished, I'm close to being done with pre-production.  I plan to begin filming next weekend, although I fear that I won't have much time considering that I'm pretty much fully booked.  However, I can get ahead by recording Joseph's monologue, since this can be done quickly and remotely.  When I timed myself reading the monologue, it averaged 1:35 minutes.  Hopefully, when Joey reads it, it remains around the same time.  Since the monologue already makes up about 3/5 of the overall production, I can't risk it going over the 1:40 minute mark.  Wish me luck!

Finishing the Script (finally)

Long time no see!  It's been a few days since my last entry, yet the progress is slow-going.  I've been working on re-writing my script, primarily by removing the dialogue scenes and replacing them with a monologue.  This seems like an easy enough task in theory, considering that a character's inner thoughts are easier to write than conversation scenes.  Yet, it's proven to be harder than I thought it would be.

My main problem when working on this is that I haven't had much time this week.  Considering that my SAT was on Wednesday, I spent the beginning of the week studying, and then spent Wednesday afternoon at work.  However, I plan to take advantage of the free time I have today to revise my script and the storyboard.  Having just finished writing, I've noted some major setbacks in the process.

Namely, writing ostentatious speeches is hard!  I tend to find monologue-led films to be cheesy and lazily written, but since it's the best course of action here, I wanted mine to at least be good.  I hoped for the writing to be thought-provoking and go past the surface level, which is always easier said than done.

"I Have Forgiven Jesus" lyrics

To ensure that I wasn't digging my own grave with this idea, I made three of my friends and two of my teachers read it.  Although they all told me that they liked it, only a few of them offered creative insight, which made me feel a little like I’m running in circles. Regardless, one of these conversations did lead to a subsequent discussion about Morrissey and his music, which led to me discovering his song “I Have Forgiven Jesus,” which would work pretty well with my production. However, as my history teacher jokingly told me, “He’d probably demand royalties.”  In any case, I do need to address the issue of music sometime soon, and this seems like a pretty promising path.

Finally, I showed the script to my dad, since he is one of my most honest critics, and will also be playing Father Peter.  Nervously, I stood over his shoulder and watched him read the monologue for the first time.  He slowly read over every word, before finally turning to me and expressing his awe.  He described it as a powerful script that hit you like "una pateada en la nuca," which roughly translates to a "kick in the gut."  This was exactly the reaction I wanted to extract from my audience.

Now having settled on the script, I decided to move on to storyboarding.  Again, this was easier said than done.  Since I had to remove the conversation scene and replace it with a voiceover, I now had a huge gap of visuals missing.  I knew that I want to include a scene picturing Joseph at church, and I knew that I want to primarily incorporate a brown/beige/greenish color palette.  But, apart from that, I was really at a loss.  To get my thoughts flowing, I decided to create a Pinterest board, which I linked here.  Although it's definitely skimpy, it did help get me inspired.  I decided that throughout the VO, I'll just have Joseph doing some everyday things.  He'll go out to get coffee, go to the bookstore, etc.

I'll also most likely be including a scene that shows Joseph in front of a wall with a comical amount of crosses, just because I think that it looks pretty cool.  One of my friends mentioned something about including a field in the production, which could be a cool addition, but might be a little random.

A potential issue that I will have to resolve sometime in the near future is that nowhere in the script is it mentioned that Joseph is gay.  Although I did this purposefully (and I believe that it's pretty heavily implied), one can never discard the fact that some people lack media understanding skills!  To combat this, I thought of a scene where Joseph sits by himself, subtly looking at a guy sitting close by, when they make awkward eye contact and Joseph looks away.  Also, I want the name of the production to be something pretty telling as well.  Although I briefly considered the name "Conversion," I discarded it for being too on-the-nose.  Still, there's no need to settle on a name this early into the production process.

For now, I'll work on finalizing the storyboard.  Updates to come!