Character Background

HIIII BLOG!! So last week, me and Nicole have finally found our plot out, we are going to be deciphering our 2 main characters and showing you guys a little of their backgrounds.

For a little background, me and Nicole did some research and found out that lower funding for police means higher crime. Since in our opening, they closed the police case of the girl, we thought it would make sense to make the setting in a lower-income community, to show the unimportance the police have for the case. To do this, we will embed a yellowish undertone in the opening to show the "dirtier" community that the girls live in. 

Adaliah comes from a low-income family (as the setting is), but she will be poorer than most people. This is one of the main causes that she will be bullied. Due to her life at home and how her parents treat her, she becomes a shy character, which makes the bullying even worse due to her not being able to stand up for herself. Her outfit choices will be like any regular teenage girl's, nothing too shabby but nothing that makes her stand out. She dresses this way to try and fit in with everyone else surrounding her, proving to them that she is no different. As time goes on and she gets more and more bullied, her outfits will change from clean, fresh clothes, to baggier clothes, not caring about her style any longer. 

Aurora will also be poor but have more money than Adaliah. Aurora conflicts with Adaliah due to Aurora's home life being great, as her family is super close, and all get along with each other. Aurora will live in a different neighborhood than Adaliah, but Adaliah will go over to Aurora's house often, (due to her not wanting to go home), making a second family with Aurora's own family. Aurora will also dress like a regular teenage girl, not standing out much. Aurora's personality will also conflict with Adaliah's, as she is super social and everyone likes her, making her have many friends. 

In the opening, when Adaliah passes, Aurora will wear the necklace that Adaliah always wears as a way to honor her. 

Group Meeting #1

 HIII BLOG!! So, after the group meeting on 2/28/2024, I learned so much. This is just an appreciation to my group to thank them for helping me so much in trying to figure out what I want to do. They gave me so much clarity. 

In the group, I gave my own feedback. There was someone in my group who had an amazing idea of a ghost movie for kids, which was a super good idea, but she was stuck on her own plot and the names. In the group, we gave her many ideas, one being zap. We told her that the name of the ghost could be Zappy, and the movie could be Zap. This could symbolize how the ghost died in the first place. I also told her to not mention how the ghost dies in the opening but to show it, so it leaves the audience pondering about what truly happened to the ghost. Another person in my group needed help with coming up with names for his own film, and the monster of his film. We searched up many horror Moster names, and eventually, someone in my group told him to name it "Mirage" due to his monster being a shape shifter, and mirage meaning illusion.

In the group meeting, I presented them with my idea, and they told me it was good. The only problem I had was that me and Nicole did not have our opening planned out, nor an idea of how it could start. To my relief, this was a very common problem we all shared which I was really grateful for because it made me feel less alone and as if I was not so behind. After telling them my story, they gave me feedback, one of them being that the opening can start off with the girl already being dead, instead of making her die in the opening. This is a great idea due to the viewers do not know what happened, which is perfect because as the movie progresses, the audience finds out what happened to Adaliah with Aurora rather than already knowing and just waiting for Aurora to find out.

 

Another idea I got for the project is that since we MIGHT do that, she is already dead rather than killing herself in the opening, they gave me another idea to establish the relationship of the friends. An example of this would be that in the funeral speech, the main girl, Aurora, could be talking about how they were such good friends and how she can't live without her, etc. By doing this, it will establish that Adaliah was a special person to Aurora, which will then lead the audience to understand why she will try an find what happened to her. 

Another great idea we got was that Adaliah could help her friend, Aurora, and help her out by giving her clues. Kind of like a "ghost" but not really if that makes sense. Like she would drop things that help Aurora and open doors you know? While I think this idea is great, I think it is too much for the opening, and would be amazing for the production itself. If we do this, we could only add one scene where this happens, and I would make it, so the audience doesn't know that it is her friend, but it hits at it, to add on to that mystery vibe. 

I want to be able to make my viewers question what is going on, making them ask why, who, when, and where. The group meetings helped impact my portfolio due to them guiding me and helping me get a better idea to my own plot. My group helped me move forward, as me and Nicole were genuinely stuck in what to do and had no clue how to move forward and plan. Even after watching openings, none of us would have been able to come up with the idea of making the girl start off as dead, or even the ghost part, which makes me super grateful for my group.

WEEK 4!

 HIIII BLOG!!! So, since me and Nicole have found out our plot, we wanted to make most of the things symbolic, as mystery contains much symbolism. For naming our characters, we have decided to make them contrast, and make them pertain to what will happen to the girls. For the girl that kills herself, we have thought of two names, Adaliah and Chiwa. These names both mean death, as that is what will happened to her. I think Chia is a very cute name, but Nicole does not think it is, so we are still deciding on that. Now for the girl who will find out what happened to her best friend, her name will be Aurora, as it means light.  

We have picked these names due to the plot of our story. We are also still in the process of picking a title, but we will probably do that today. To do that, we will have to make it symbolic, yet with importance to the story, so we will have to sit and think of the title. 

We will also start story boarding TODAY and HOPEFULLY start filming tomorrow. I know that to do this, we will have to focus and be serious about the work, BECAUSE I WANT THAT FREE SPRING BREAK. I still have to ask the girl that will play Adaliah if she can be in our project, I think she will say yes (HOPEFULLY). 

RESEARCH 2 (kinda)

 HIII BLOGGG!! So since me and Nicole have found out what our plot is going to be, we have started talking and planning how the opening will go and what will happen when. After researching the mystery genre openings, there are things that I have seen from the openings that I would like to include in my own.

In the credit scene, the names of the people that worked on the film all appear as things are happening, and its not just a blank screen. Also, the name of the characters does not appear with the character as they show up, but in different times while other things are happening. We will do this by putting all the credits in parts where the characters are not shown yet. Here are 2 opening examples where this is shown.

Another thing I have noted about mystery movie openings, is that the title is always imbedded behind things that are happening and are not shown on a black screen like other genres. These are 2 example that illustrate what I have discussed. 

They also start a lot of times with the production company, but I'm pretty sure every movie does that??? I'm not really too sure but I want to include that in me and Nicoles. 

When me and Nicole have our whole intro set up, I will discuss in deeper terms how these things will all be incorporated into me and Nicoles intro. I also want to start finding the name of the movie, and I want it to be symbolic to what actually happens.

WE FOUND IT

HIIII BLOGGG!!!! Today, me and Nicole researched TOGETHER and found the plot for our opening. It will be mystery, and it will about these 2 friends, and 1 of them is getting bullied but nobody else knows, and she ends up killing herself. The police open a case but struggle and find little to no evidence on why she killed herself, her friend, knowing her, knows that she would never do this as she was a happy light spirit, so she goes on her own mission to find out why her friend killed herself.

With this plot, I already have some characters in mind and the people who can play those 2. My friends Alex and Gabby are the PERCECT PAIR for this project. 

The way the opening will be planned out will be that it starts with the production companies name, then a part of the scene starts, then the name of the movie will appear, and then the rest of the opening will show. Me and Nicole still have to plan the whole thing, but we are really grateful and happy to have gotten our plot down after a week of going back and forth, and we are happy that we found something we FINALLY agreed on. We still have to figure the name out for the characters and film, but we plan om story boarding first to get an idea to see if we can connect the name to the opening.

WEEK 3!

HIII BLOGGG!! Okay so in this past week, me and Nicole STILL do not know what our opening can be based on. As you can see from what I have said in the past, it will be a mystery, but we just are not agreeing on what it should be about, so over the weekend Nicole will come over or I will go to her house and TOGETHER, we will watch lots of intros, movies, and openings, and write down what we enjoy from all of them so we can come up with something. 

Somethings I have noted that I liked and would like to include in my own openings are ANIMATED PRODUCTION COMPANY LOGOS. Honestly those sound super hard but I am thinking of drawing a bunch of pictures and putting them all together so it will look animated. Another thing I really love about most openings that I would love to include in my own is how simple yet DETAILED the openings are, and how there are so many props that are simple yet add their own detail and help the storyline flow. In another class, my teacher mentioned how some students went thrifting to find their props, so me and Nicole will probably do that, as well as making some of our props.   

Another thing I was thinking about was starting off our intro with people talking but I don't know about what like you know what I'm going for??? I hope that made sense, because the last idea I had was SO GOOD but so undoable.

Schedule

For me and Nicoles projects, we know that this cannot be done in a short period of time, so we have come up with a discrete schedule to help us stay on task during the nine weeks that we are meant to work on this project. 

- week of 2/19-2/25

- Have our whole plot finished

-Start story board

-finish 3 blog post

-week of 2/26-3/3

- start creating our logo for our production company

-start creating name for our production company

-finish story board

-finish 3 blog post

-week of 3/4-3/10

- start filming 

- finish 3 blog post

-check up with teacher to make sure everything looks well

-week of 3/11-3/17

-finish filming

-start editing

-finish 3 blog post

-fix anything our teacher tells us to fix

-week of 3/18-3/24

- finish editing

-finish 3 blog post

-week of 3/25-3/31

-FREEEEE SPRING BREAKKKKKKKKK

-week of 4/1-4/2

-make sure everything looks well

-submit project

This is just a draft of what we would like our schedule to look like, and we will make sure to do as much as possible to make sure this schedule is followed. We are prepared with the past knowledge our teacher has given to us, and if anything ends up going wrong, we have spring break to help us get back on our feet and make sure this project is done properly for a good score and submitted on time.