A changed scene from filming!

Hi guys it's me Santi,

A still from the recorded shot (not color graded)

So day 1 of filming is done, as outlined before, and we made some changes to a scene! Originally we had this scene where Halley, our main character, just connects her phone to the car after one radio channel plays stuff about the rogue planet, but we scrapped that and changed it a little bit, so now she’s flipping through a bunch of radio channels, all of them covering the planet that’s gone off course, and it's upcoming impact, and she’s getting very annoyed and clicks the radio off. It’s longer than the old version and we’re all liking how it’s turning out, plus we even got some extra takes of her reacting to the static and voices, so we’ve got a lot of shots to play with in the edit.

The only thing was we spent so much time tweaking that scene that we were rushing with the outdoor shots, like I said last time, we wanted to shoot during dusk but ended up with night shots, so we’ll be color-grading most of the later shots to make it look seamless, but I think it’ll be worth it.

Until next time, Santi :

First Day of Filming Done!

Hi guys it's me Santi,

We just finished our first day of filming!

Like I talked about in a previous blog, we had to split the day into two, but what we DID end up filming ended up being pretty great! We got the shots that were in our shot list, and much more! We even got more shots than we needed, so it'll be easier when we edit since we overshot.

Our shot list

An issue we started having was that we originally wanted to film during dusk, but dusk only lasts so long, so by the time we were done filming it was fully night time, so during the edit we'll probably have to color-grade darker shots so that it all looks like it's happening within 5-10 minutes in the context of the film opening.



Since we're not filming the indoor parts for a bit, we'll begin a line edit (and VFX of the planet!) through the following week or so before continuing with the indoor scenes, as me and my team will be out of town this week so we can't film the indoor scenes.

Until next time, Santi :)

LET ME INNNN (the gas station)

 Hi guys it's me Santi,

So we recently tried to film the opening, and it was actually looking pretty good! (more on that in another post.) But we ran into a small problem. We first filmed the outside footage first, and then we were planing on going inside the gas station and asking for permission to film inside for a short while. You're probably asking "why didn't you call beforehand?"
We thought asking for permission in person would make it more likely for us to actually get the go-ahead to film there, since they can see that we're technically just a bunch of kids who want to do a project. The ladies in the gas station were actually really sweet but they said they couldn't do anything because their manager wasn't working during that time, and they couldn't call her. This left us with two options: record the rest of the opening in another gas station, or try again another day, which would end up splitting filming into two separate days.

We still had a lot to film, so we ended up deciding on doing the indoor shots another day, which would in turn give us more time to film outside, and give us extra shots in case we need more shots for the edit. For the rest of the shots, we're aiming to film around March 9th, which cuts into our post-production time, but most of the post-production (and the film opening) is the outside shots, so we should be fine.
I think.

Until next time, Santi :)

Planning the Planet (get it)

Hi guys it's me Santi,

So how exactly are we having a planet appear in the sky of our shot?

There are many ways for it to happen, but what I want to use is a mix of Blender and Adobe After Effects. I already have experience with both softwares, and I've made complex 3D environments before with Blender, and composited them with real footage in After Effects.

A CG Space Station I made entirely in "Blender"

A CG environment made in "Blender" and composited in "After Effects"
 

With past experience by making these, I'll be making a CG planet in "Blender", composited into real footage using "After Effects." For reference, I'll be looking at the 2011 film "Melancholia," which has similar visuals throughout it's film.

Still from "Melancholia" (2011)

I'll be updating the blog as I begin designing the planet, see you then!

Until next time, Santi :)

The lights also tell a story!!

Hi guys it's me Santi,

Let's talk a little bit about the lighting in the opening. Largely, the opening takes place in two settings: Inside of the gas station and outside in the parking lot (plus inside the car).

Inside of the gas station, the atmosphere is a bit cool, but there's enough saturation to make certain items pop, and as for neutral colors, we'll incorporate them into costumes a bit more to go along with the cool colors of the gas station.

For the exterior scene, the lighting shifts to warmer tones since it's set during dusk/sunset, and pinks, violets, and oranges will help depict this scene and set the right mood. Additionally, the giant planet in the sky will definitely add more color to the skyline. Now, her neutral tones definitely contrast against the almost beautiful planet and it's overwhelming colors, and this contrast gives the audience the first hint of what our character is feeling, and how she sees the world.

Additionally, inside the car it'll be cool lighting, though we want the lights inside of the car to be warm, so as she gets in she's being bathed in warmer light, and as she begins to drive the lights turn off, once again bathing her in a cooler tone, exemplifying how she feels as she looks at a picture of her and her friend, the reason why she's as sad as she is now. 

Not much left to do before shooting, wish us luck!

Until next time, Santi :)

Wait what's she wearing

Hi guys it's me Santi,

Now that we’ve explored Halley’s backstory, it’s time to break down how we’re shaping her visual identity, specifically through the costume and props.

For our film opening, we are keeping Halley’s costume and props simple, reflecting a bit of who she is. Here is a mood board that captures her overall aesthetic:

In the mood board you can also see the girl who will be playing Halley in our opening! The additional elements include her clothing, hairstyle, props, and the color palette that defines her character. Halley’s wardrobe reflects her emotional state, as she is struggling internally, and her choice of clothing subtly conveys that.

Halley's hairstyle is gonna be flat, again going along with the simple vibe that we're trying to give with Halley (also who cares about your hair when you're all gonna die in 5 months?)

As for her prop, we have chosen a pair of headphones, which will serve as her escape from reality, allowing her to block out the outside world and retreat into her own space. They also work as the prop from where we will be hearing music from, which happens throughout the opening.

Since Halley is our main character and the central focus of the opening, these details are crucial in shaping her presence on screen.

Until next time, Santi :)

(Not a lot to talk about in this one but her aesthetic is simple so you get a simple blog)

The sound of our opening

Hi guys it's me Santi

Sometimes, audio is even more crucial than visuals because it's what pulls you in and makes you feel like you're right inside of a scene, the right sounds can totally elevate the film by boosting emotions and taking you into the world we've created.

Throughout the class, we've learned about the different types of sounds we can use, from synchronous sounds to voiceovers, and in our film opening, we'll definitely be using non-diegetic sound, so any sounds that don't come from the story world, like background music. In our film opening, background music will be strongly shown throughout, helping to tell the story and immerse the audience.

Alongside the non-diegetic sound, we'll complement it with synchronous sound (grocery store sounds and car sounds) to give a sense of place as the story unfolds, so the audience can hear the environment where the story is set and pick up on background noises that are relevant. Synchronous sound is basically sound that's matched with what's happening on screen, like the noise of objects (like grocery store or car!!)

There's also a scene in our opening where a radio turns on and an multiple announcements are made, this is where we'll use a voiceover, it's not something you see happening on screen, but it provides essential information to the audience, the planet is heading torwards Halley (and the world) in about 5 months.

As for the music, we're still on the trying to find the perfect fit to match the vibe of the film opening. Music is super important because it helps set the tone, and it will be heard through a lot of the opening, as Halley gets her products from the store. We're exploring different options, and if we choose a track that's copyrighted, we'll make sure to get the necessary permissions (though that's unlikely since artists probably never respond to us...)

Our group member Sam contacted all of the artists that we might want music from!

Until next time, Santi :)

Halley like the girl not like the comet

Hi guys it's me Santi,

Selecti‌ng a name, for a character can be quite a task as it conveys a lot, about their identity and origins​​​. In making the beginning of our movie​​​ we aimed to pick a name that truly reveals our characters essence and history to the viewers​​​, and we knew that we wanted our character's name to have some sort of connection to space and all things cosmic, as a sort of nod to the already cosmic setting of the movie.

After looking online for a while, we landed on Halley (like Halley's Comet).

The name Halley carries a lot of weight and meaning, mostly since we made it so that it's tying into the space theme of our story. Additionally, our character of Halley is shown to be very uncaring and indifferent, specially in the event that we're putting her in, and that's for a reason.

While we don't show it directly, Halley went through a traumatic event when she was younger, leading her to grow up with a diagnosis of depression, in return, she acts indifferent to everything around her and tries to isolate herself from her friends and family, thinking it to be best for both herself and those she loves. However, as the story unfolds, she meets someone who helps her find meaning and joy in life again.

There's a cool link between her name and her personality, because when you think of the name Halley you think of strength and courage, while also thinking about the comet. Halley's comet passes Earth once every 72-80 years, mostly being distant from us, yet when it does pass by us it's a beautiful sight to see.

In her case, it reflects how she's endured loneliness and apathy, but someone else helps her overcome this, seeing the beauty inside, and by the end of the movie she finds the strength to push through and rediscover life's purpose, while she still can.

At its core, our film is about healing and overcoming depression, and about trying to help out those who seem like they might not want help, because everybody deserves to have someone by their side.

Until next time, Santi :)

it IS that deep! (Media Theories)

Hi guys it's me Santi,

Studying media means a lot of super cool learning opportunities, such as learning media theories! Using these theories, I can learn more about how films are made and how they connect to the audience.

I’ve attended my classes to learn about various theories which made me very excited to implement them in my project work, so the opening is gonna be where I put what I learned into practice!

A theory that me and my team really want to include in our opening is Todorov's Theory, specifically the disequilibrium part. This is that point in a story when the main character's life just explodes and everything changes. In our opening this is done by literally having a planet on it's way to disrupt our story! The planet won't be revealed until halfway through the opening, serving as that point where the entire story changes.

Then there’s the semantic code, it’s when objects in a film mean way more than what they look like on the surface. We plan to apply this concept to our film by assigning symbolic meanings to the items our character selects at the grocery store. Every item they choose will have this deeper, hidden meaning. Obviously this won't be shown in the opening itself, but it'll be part of the bigger film overall, something important to keep in mind when making our opening.

Let's see how this goes!
Until next time, Santi :)

Our name and idea!

Hi guys it's me Santi,

You might've noticed that the script of our opening has something that the others don't have: a title!
That's because we found the name for our film! the name is....

Ataraxia

Finding the name for our film was a bit silly, because we know that our film has an overall theme of depression and learning to enjoy every moment. Our film uses the planet as a sort of metaphor, but i'll dive deeper into that in another post.
We wanted a name that reflected both the theme of depression and something that sounds like it could be the name of a planet or a cosmic name, so we started looking at our dear friend theasurus.com

While it wasn't much help, we kept looking through multiple vocabulary websites to find a word we were happy with. We then thought: what if we instead looked for a word that meant the opposite? A word that meant release, calm, serenity, something hinting towards what our main character would be feeling by the end of the film.

During this search, we found “Ataraxia,” which is described as a state of complete peace and freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety. The term is Greek and is connected to a philosophy where it signifies the highest form of happiness as inner peace. The name was perfect for our film in two ways. First, it looks and sounds otherworldly and cosmic, which is exactly what we were looking for! Second, it captures the emotional journey of our protagonist, who begins in depression and disconnection and ends in tranquillity and acceptance. The narrative arc is powerful because it contrasts the character’s initial state with the concept of Ataraxia.

Speaking of the emotional journey of our protagonist...

The story of the entire film.

If you don't know the story of our opening, here's a summary.
We don't want to get too deep into the rest of the film, as we wanna focus most of our efforts on the actual opening, but its important to have an idea of where the film is going later, so that the opening doesn't feel like a short film by itself.

After the opening, our character is shown having to deal with her friends and family struggling to grasp that their life is ending in a couple of months from this planet, yet Halley (the name of our MC) is unbothered, it's her way of "coping" with the situation. A close friend of her is then introduced, and this friend helps Halley discover the beauty of life, and learning acceptance without being sad. A source of inspiration, though a bit silly, is the movie "The Mitchells vs. the Machines," which centers on a family that has to save the world, though they're a bit dysfunctional. What I want to focus on is the dynamic between the daughter and the father in the movie, and how they learn to accept each other's difference through the events of the movie, as they travel across the country to save the world. A similar approach we want to take is that our main character and her friend travel across the state in order to fulfill a bucket list or a to-do list, and on the way our main character can learn acceptance and finding the beauty in otherwise inevitably bad moments.

Conceptual rendering of what a scene later in the film would look like. Created using OpenAI's DALL-E 3.

Overall, we want the film to be wholesome, it's less sci-fi and more drama. (And no, the two characters won't fall in love, they're strictly friends.)

Until next time, Santi :)

We have a script!! (and a name!!!)

 Hi guys its me Santi,

I have finished writing the script! I absolutely love writing scripts, and this one was more special than other scripts I usually write, because this one had almost no dialogue, so instead, I had to describe every scene's "feeling" in a way, it gives a sense of what I want the actual shot to give aesthetically.
I'm probably just talking but anyways, here's the script!

Now it's time to make an actual shot list, as well as thinking a bit more about the actual cinematography of the opening. See you guys then!
Until next time, Santi :)

Feedback from the Group!

 Hi guys it's me Santi,

Sometimes when you're making something you like, it might not actually be good. It just happens because you're biased to your own work, so you can't see the flaws in it. This was an issue for my team, so during class our teacher decided to randomly group us up into different groups so that we could get fresh and unbiased opinions on our project! There were 5 other people in my group, who all gave me solid ideas and identified a couple of plot holes in our opening. Let's go over them!

A photo of my random group going over our ideas!

Where did the planet come from?

One of the biggest comments I got was "where did the planet come from?" It's a pretty big planet (we don't know the exact size but it's a tiny bit smaller than Jupiter), so it would've probably been detected coming towards us years ago, giving the Earth more time to react, and also it would've made no sense if people were running around the grocery store in a panic (they would've had time to run years ago). So we have two options: Give extra exposition and have it so that the planet was projected to fly by the earth, but instead at the last second it was predicted to crash. The second option is to make the planet Mars instead of a rogue planet, again giving the Earth less time to react.
There are problems with each option, as having Mars go out of orbit would probably have more implications than just crashing into the Earth, but it would be easier to explain than using up our time to get more exposition out to the audience.
We're still trying to figure out what's the best approach, but that'll be decided once my team meets up again to review our critiques.


I'm still working on the script, so let's hope it goes well!
Until next time, Santi :)

The story of our opening!

Hi guys it's me Santi
Before I get to scripting, I want to explain what our film opening is actually about, specially since I've been talking so much about it in my past blogs.

Here's a short synopsis of our entire story:

A girl is doing her groceries in a very mundane fashion while she listens to a song on her headphones (we don't know what song yet). She's vibing subtly to the song while she gets her groceries, while in the background people seem to be in a panicked mood, stocking up on food, and being very fast and anxious in their movements, the girl notices but remains unfazed. As she exits the grocery store, there is revealed to be a large planet in the sky, obviously making it's way towards Earth, it looks beautiful, and almost haunting, yet the girl keeps walking, not batting an eye. She's clearly aware of the planet, yet it looks like she's forcing herself not to care. As she gets in the car, the radio sparks up, and for a moment, we get exposition: the planet will crash onto Earth in 5 months, and panic has begun to spread. Before we get to hear more, she connects her phone's bluetooth and the song she was listening to on her headphones begins playing in the car. She closes the door to her car, and begins driving away. The opening ends as she sets her phone down and starts to drive.

Still from "Melancholia" (2011) showing a rogue planet in the skyline of a shot, I want our opening to look similar.

AI-Generated image by OpenAI's "DALL-E" showing a concept for what the planet would look like in the opening, yet much smaller. (Usually I would steer away from using AI in any capacity but this was a quick way to get a visual concept for what we want without spending a lot of time photoshopping concept art.)

If any changes are made to the story I'll update the blog as we progress with production, but this is the story for now! Me and my group are very happy with it.

Until next time, Santi :)

Researching the credits of movies

 Hi guys it's me Santi,
A quick note on what I want the credits to be before I start researching, I want my credits to be super simple, yet in an elegant way, so I found some movies that did that!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Okay so this opening sequence is actually not very spacial, but that's what makes it so perfect for the film opening. The movie starts with Jim Carrey driving in his car, and the whole thing has this washed-out winter look that just feels very real and boring, which is what we're trying to go for at the beginning of our film opening.

The credits appear in this really simple white text that just kind of fades into existence and then dissolves away. Nothing fancy or wild, just clean, plain text that appears and then sort of evaporates like it's dissolving from memory (like the movie!) 

The whole sequence is maybe like 2-3 minutes, but it tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the film's mental state. He's just existing, driving his car, while these white words float in and out of frame like the thoughts he's trying not to think about. No fancy effects, no crazy typography, just this dude and the text, which is the vibe we're trying to go for in the film opening, for our boring character in the boring grocery store not caring. 

Guardians of the Galaxy

I know, weird change of pace, just went from Eternal Sunshine to a Marvel movie, but just hear me out.

The whole thing is set to Radiohead's "Creep" but it's this acoustic version that feels more slow. Instead of the usual upbeat retro music we expect from GOTG, we get this slow, melancholic cover that perfectly matches what we're seeing, a more emotionally driven film (watch the movie it is probably the best marvel movie out of all of them).

The credits themselves appear in this metallic chrome-looking font which is still simple enough for the movie, again while the movie is playing, so rocket is going around Knowhere (where the guardians live while they're not doing much), and the title credit at the end is in plain white, with a subtle depth effect appearing behind Nebula's head.

Again, these work great for the vibe we're trying to go for, and I really like how "big" the title is, taking up two thirds of the frame, which is what i wanna do when we get to the big scene that reveals the planet in the sky.

Ok, I think I get the gist of what I wanna do, so, let's get scripting!
Until next time, Santi :)

Making you bored on purpose

 Hi guys it's me Santi
I realized that before scripting my opening I have to look at other openings so that I make sure that I'm not just going insane and making an opening that would actually miss the point! So I spent all of today looking at openings and their respective credit sequences (but that's for another blog).

I looked up "Don't Look Up"

If you're not familiar with "Don't look up" It's basically a disaster movie about a comet that crashes into the earth and everyone dies but with political commentary!
It wasn't good. But, the opening scene was really clever. What I like the most about it is how the entire time nothing is said, it's just music, sound effects, and mumbling from the character on screen as she sings along to a song she's listening to. The point of the opening is to introduce the comet, but we don't know that it's on a collision course for earth, that's revealed later in the movie.
Something I like here is how there's a lot of inserts and close-up shots, I took it as a way to emphasize the nothingness of the moment, until she discovers the comet. In fact, you don't even know where she is until 24 seconds into the scene, the scene starts with just sound of a tea kettle followed by close-ups of her making tea and a sandwich. You can tell she's used to it, going on her science computer to start up her science laser telescope (I don't know how it works), it tells the audience that this is probably a repetitive thing she's done before, so she's uninterested for the most part, something that our character will be doing a lot in my film opening!
The way the film opening was gonna go was that my character would be in a grocery store and you wouldn't know there was a rogue planet in the sky until later, so this helps with figuring out how we could do that with cinematography

Rogue Planet Side Note

Yeah I said rogue planet. We were gonna go for an asteroid first, but then we realized that asteroids were sort of very much so overdone, so we decided to look for other disasters. At first we thought "what if the sun started flickering" but then we realized there were so many limitations with that (I'd have to find a way to use vfx to globally illuminate the entire scene so that it would look realistic). Then we thought of more natural disasters like tsunamis, but the disaster has to happen slowly, something that you know about months before but you can't do anything about it. So we thought "wait what if asteroid but much bigger" and boom! rogue planet!
But more on the story of our opening later...

Melancholia (the planet and the word)

This is an insane film opening, I wanna take a second to actually talk about the movie in general. It has a similar premise to our film opening, about a character who doesn't care about the end of the world, and it had a rogue planet! The opening itself is beautifully made, and you have to watch the film to actually understand what's happening, but some of the takeaways is definitely the look of the planet.

There's such an otherworldly look to the planet, but in an elegant fashion, it's very pretty basically. Me and my team are definitely taking inspiration from this still to create our opening. 
Another thing Melancholia does is show the planet's trajectory. It flies by Earth, before turning around and crashing with it. It gives people plenty of time to see the planet (and their doom) yet it takes a lot of time to actually happen, something that could set up the story pretty well for us.

I'll definitely be looking into this approach when thinking about our opening, hopefully it looks as good as this movie!
Until next time, Santi :)

Schedule time yayy!

Hi guys it's me Santi

I need to make a schedule otherwise I am NOT finishing this on time so me and my group made a rough schedule with enough time to do everything AND even have an extra week of nothing just in case something happens (99% chance something will happen).

So the schedule is as follows:

Week 1 (1/29-2/2):Research

Already done! (Check my earlier blogs for that)

Week 2 (2/3-2/9):Planning

Storyboard (done by 2/7) 

Script (done by 2/7)

Location scouting (done by 2/10)

ShotList (done by 2/9)

Casting (done 2/9) 

Week 3 (2/10-2/16):Filming

Get props/costumes (2/10-2/12)

Begin filming (2/15)

Create Foley

Find sound effects/music

Week 4 (2/17-2/23): Wrapping up filming/Editing  

Wrap up (2/18)

Start editing- line edit (2/23)

Start graphics/VFX

Week 5 (2/24-3/2): Editing

Final edit (3/2)

Revisions: make changes needed 

Week 6 (3/3-3/9): CCR 

Creative Critical Reflection

Research information relating to the reflection.

Create the reflection.

Edit and review CCR.

Week 7 (3/10-3/16):CCR

Week 8 (3/17-3/25): Quick Fixes

In case any fixes are needed

Ok so, it seems like a lot, but during one of the weeks, I have a TV competition, so I basically have one week less to work on it, so me and my team accounted for that. I'll keep the blog updated in case anything moves around, but otherwise this should be the schedule that the whole team will follow.
Hopefully nothing goes wrong!

Until next time, Santi :)

World-Ending Genres

Hi guys it's me Santi,

Me and my team have decided to go for a disaster movie vibe but more grounded than the usual vibe of disaster movies, so our two genres that we'll analyze are Drama and Sci-Fi.

Drama films typically focus on realistic characters dealing with emotional themes and conflicts, something that will definitely be hard to pull off when trying to build our character for the opening (though we won't have to show much of the story since it's just an opening). Drama movies often explore complex relationships, personal struggles, and social issues, but what makes drama films special is their ability to make audiences connect deeply with the characters through raw, authentic performances and relatable situations. Examples like "Aftersun" or "The Whale" come to mind when I think of "grounded," the twist in our opening is that I want to go for this "grounded" vibe in a plot that's more fictional, which will require a lot of thinking.

Still from "Aftersun," I like the use of color here to "ground" the scene more.

On the other hand, Sci-Fi films allow for more creative freedom with the nature of their environment and vibe. While they often deal with advanced technology or futuristic concepts, I think that the best sci-fi movies use these elements to explore very human themes. Movies like "Arrival" show how sci-fi can also be used serious topics while keeping elements of fiction, and it also gives filmmakers the ability to create unique visual worlds and use special effects to enhance the storytelling rather than just for show. I think a great example of this are the visuals in "The Creator" which has one of the best environments in my opinion. 

Still from "The Creator"

Still from "The Creator"

The reason why I love "The Creator" so much is because they have a lot of sci-fi elements, like the floating ships or the giant structures, and yet it all feels so real, it feels as though this was something they actually built and not made with computer graphics (even though it was). It's a vibe that I haven't seen recreated in many other films (Side note watch "The Creator" it's a really good movie.)

Combining these genres could work really well for our film opening. The drama elements would help keep the story grounded near the beginning of the opening, while the sci-fi aspects could provide an interesting backdrop or cause for the disaster itself. Films like "Interstellar" have successfully balanced both genres, using sci-fi concepts to drive the plot while keeping the emotional drama at its core. Using these two genres would also help to hide the twist we're trying to go for (but more on that for a later post!)

Until next time, Santi :)