My Favorite Part

 As we reach the end of this project, I was talking to my group members about what they hated and loved about the experience. I realized that it was actually quite easy to pick out my favorite part of this movie making journey. While everyone went through a different experience and has different beliefs, I truly believe that the the best part of this project was filming the scenes in my neighborhood. 

While it was a bit of a struggle to decide on an appropriate film location and time, the outcome was worth the journey. We had so much fun filming everything! There is something so entertaining about watching you friend act and be someone else. We were all cracking up as Tori had to be dramatic with me and slam the door shut or when Ashley and I had to argue about nonsense. It was so comedic! In such hard times like the ones we live in now, it is such a pleasure to be able to have good moments like those. 

Our little gang of four walked and drove around my neighborhood trying to find the perfect spot for filming. It was actually quite embarrassing at times, but that made it even funnier. At one point, we were filming and August and James scene in front of a group of gardeners! They were probably so confused with what we were doing. However, it gave us quite a laugh. We had to drive to so many different places because the sun and shadows of the trees kept getting in the way of the car scene. So, that actually took us on a fun adventure. 

Don't be fooled. This event wasn't all rainbows and sunshine. It was also a little stressful because we had a time limit and Tori's camera was running out of battery, while also overheating under the hot sun. In fact, we had to film one of the scenes on one of our cell phones. Also, I kept telling Hannah how to properly film the shot I was imagining and we had to do a lot of retakes. I think Hannah was getting sick of it, but nothing gets in the way of a good opening! Anyways, most of the day was very fun and we actually finished filming with plenty of time to spare. 

Color in our Opening

 Color can play a big part in expressing certain moods and emotions in films. In fact, each color is usually associated to a certain feeling or thing in someone's mind. For example, the color red may be associated to love, while the color green to envy. While we don't focus too much on color in our film opening, there are a few instances where one can see color symbolizing something greater. 

First off, the biggest, most obvious use of color to express an emotion is definitely thought the first scene in Betty's room. Like I have stated before, Betty's room is relatively dark, with the blinds closed, but it also has a dark blue tone to it, with touches of purple. This is not coincidental! Blue can mean many different things, depending on the shade of the color. However, a deep, dark blue, like the one seen in our opening, can symbolize seriousness and depression. The color in the room is a reflection of the emotions Betty is currently feeling. She has just gone through a horrible breakup, which involved the person she loved betraying her trust and cheating on her. She feels lost, confused, sad, lonely, insecure, hopeless, depressed, and more. A bright yellow room would not coincide with these emotions, so a dark blue color fits perfectly in sync with Betty's emotions. 

One might also see the clothes that each character wear as a symbol of what they represent. For example, Betty wears a light pink top, a color that can symbolize youthfulness, femininity, and first love. All of these definitely represent Betty and the story, since it follows the tragic end to a wonderful, young, first love. So, I do think it makes sense for Betty to wear this color. Furthermore, James wears a red sweater, which could represent love and danger. I also think this fits James well because while he does represent the love that Betty once had, he also can be the danger that will break her heart. 

Finally, one could see August's wardrobe as symbolism too, but I have to say, it is a little bit of a stretch. So, August wears a white top with a green dragon in the center. White is a color that represents perfection, which could represent August since Betty and many other people view her as being this perfect girl who gets everything she wants. However, white could also represent purity and innocence, which isn't what I want August to represent at all! The green dragon has a whole other significance. The green can represent the envy August may feel towards Betty since James wants to be with her, or it may represent the envy other girls feel towards August. While it may not have to do with color, I should also mention that the dragon represents August in the eye's of the viewer. She is the big, bad dragon of the story that ruined something perfect and good. 

Lighting in our Opening

 We didn't really focus too much on lighting in our project. What I mean by this we didn't necessarily intentionally choose certain lighting to represent something deeper. However, there are different lightings throughout our film opening and some may represent something, if the viewer interprets it that way. Also, we did not edit any of the lighting during post-production. All of the lightening one sees during the opening is the lighting that was naturally present at the time. 

I should start with Betty's room scene. The first minute of the opening is spent in this room that Betty calls her own, and it definitely has a significantly unique lighting from the rest of the opening. The lighting in the room is much darker than outside and it actually has a bluish tone. I don't think this is a coincidence. The darker lighting goes along with the dramatic mood we are trying to set, especially with the dramatic piano music playing in the background. Not to mention, Betty has just gone through a horrible heartbreak. The blinds being closed, preventing any outside light from entering her room, makes sense because she just wants to sit in the dark with her feelings. So, Tori may have chosen this route for the lighting on purpose. I definitely think it works well! A very bright room wouldn't exactly go well with the dramatic piano music and slow pan over burned flowers and letters. 

After this, the lighting gets much brighter as Betty nears the front door and opens it, letting in a flash of bright sunlight, to reveal James standing on the other side. Maybe James is the light at the end of the dark tunnel? The rest of the film opening is pretty bright, due to the outdoor, natural sunlight that was present during our day of filming. We actually really did hope it would be bright! We wanted to make sure the sky was a clear, light blue when we tilted up to it, revealing the title. A dark, stormy sky filled with grey clouds would create a mood we didn't want for this portion of the opening. Also, it is supposed to be morning, since Betty is waking up, so the brightness of a new day would make sense, rather than the lighting of a sunset for example. 

An Unexpected Font Change

 So, I have some unexpected news to share. Our team must always be ready to alter some things and adapt if things don't go exactly as planned. Well, that's exactly what happened. The original fonts we decided on and wrote about in a previous blog post are no longer going to be used because of some difficulties. 

Let me elaborate. So, Quita and Kinuta, the fonts we were originally going to use turned out to be really difficult to download into our editing software. As a result, Melanie told us we had to limit our font selection to those in Dafont.com. At first, I was very disappointed to hear this because I was invested in the original fonts we had decided on. However, I soon found out that the new fonts Melanie was suggesting were actually really nice and not too different from our first ones. I am happy to announce that the official fonts we have used in our film are called Sylfaen and Pretty Shine!

Pretty Shine

Sylfaen

Like I said, these fonts are not too different from the original ones and still meet the criteria we were looking for. As a reminder, we wanted an elegant, but more legible font for the credits and a fancy, cursive font for the title. At the end of the day, I am extremely happy with how the fonts turned out and think it looks great. It might've been a long, complicated journey, but the end result makes it all worth it!

Genre in our Opening

 The general genre of our movie opening is a romantic drama, also with elements of coming-of-age. We definitely achieve the mood and tone of a movie of such a genre through several different techniques and methods. Here's a few examples of how my group achieved this throughout our project.

For one, there is the romance element of this film. Obviously, this story centers around the love story between James and Betty. It is about how a boy can break a girl's heart, even if they are madly in love. James' constant attempts at winning Betty back shows his love for her and might be seen as romantic by many. I feel that if this was a full movie, Betty and James would get back together. This just shows how if love is really meant to be, it will find its way back to each other, despite several hardships. On a smaller scale, the relationship between August and James is also quite romantic. It shows the thrill of an illicit summer fling and also the pain of unrequited love. Love and romance is definitely a big theme in this opening. 

Next, there is the most obvious genre, which is drama. If there is one thing this film opening is, it's dramatic. From the intense piano music in a dark room to the over-the-top door slam, Betty and this opening are both pretty dramatic. Which makes sense, since the story centers on the greatest betrayal and heartbreak a teenager in love can go through. The intense arguing between James and August also displays how drama is a genre in the movie. Every single character is going through their own struggle, some dealing with it better than others. Desperation and pain from the protagonists gives the film its dramatic element. 

Finally, there is definitely some coming-of-age in this movie. All of these characters are still teenagers, which can be the most strange, confusing time in a person's life. All of the protagonists are going through their own story arcs, and learning from their experiences and mistakes. It's all part of growing up! For example, James made a horrible mistake due to immaturity and stupidity. He regrets his decisions and wants to do right by Betty. In Betty's case, she is going through a horrible sadness and pain. She must learn to navigate this and decide what is best for her. All of these are common traits seen in a coming-of-age movie. 

Our Group Dynamic

 One of the most rewarding parts of this project has been the ability to work so closely with a set of talented individuals. I am extremely proud of what my group has been able to accomplish with a little bit of teamwork. Everyone has contributed something special to this film opening and I can't imagine having done it with a different group of people. 

Tori is no stranger to working hard for her grade. She delivered an amazing performance as Betty just when we were thinking we would have no one to fill the role. She took time out of her weekend to come join us for filming, and even did extra filming by herself at home. That's star quality! If it wasn't for Tori, we wouldn't have been able to get our hands on a professional camera to make sure our shots were top notch quality.

Hannah has been one of my biggest collaborators. She has helped me in structuring this crazy story and bring our ideas together. In fact, she has been coming up with ideas for the film opening before the project was even assigned. She also took time our of her schedule to come out to filming and direct the entire production. Yes, she was the one behind the camera for almost every single shot! 

Finally, Melanie has been an enormous help. I do not think we would have been able to carry out the editing process of this film without Melanie. She has been learning all about the editing process from friends who know more about it and has applied her new knowledge to our film! I have to say, I am very happy with the result. She is also one of the members who is always offering new ideas for the film. A lot of new things that changed from my original storyline has been due to Melanie's genius thoughts!

I also have to give a special thanks to our friend, Ashley Polo! She didn't have to help us since she wasn't in our group or class, but she still agreed to be August in our film. We couldn't have thought of a better person to fill this role. Thank you Ashley!

At the end of the day, this project has not been carried out without obstacles. I think the hardest thing I've been challenged by in the making of this film opening has been the coronavirus pandemic. Especially since I am working in a group, it has been especially hard to work during this time. For example, our original casting for Betty had to be changed because the previous actress had to stay in quarantine. Also, Tori had to film her Betty scenes separate from the rest of the filming to be safe and not enter someone else's house. In fact, the reason our editor, Melanie, could not come to the filming was because her parents wanted her to stay quarantined. Not to mention, due to COVID procedures, we had to move back our filming date an entire week. So, this pandemic has definitely presented the biggest challenge for this project and many other things in people's lives. Still, through hard work and perseverance, we were able to carry out our movie opening to our best ability!

Close to Finished: A Reflection

I am so thrilled to say that we are finally reaching the end of our project. This has been an interesting journey with lots of ups and downs. In fact, we've had to make so many little edits and changes along the way in order to make everything work. 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we've had to make several adjustments to make sure everyone stayed safe. For example, originally, Betty was going to be played by my friend, Amber, and the scene would be filmed in her room. Unfortunately, because her parents required her to quarantine, we had to make a last minute casting change and Tori took on the role of Betty. However, we still had no clue where Betty's Room scene would be filmed. We originally thought of my sister's room, but that didn't work. Eventually, we carried out our finished result, in which Tori filmed the scene by herself in her own room.  

We have also has several changes concerning the screenplay. In fact, my original script included a fourth character, Inez, who would've been a gossipy friend of Betty's. Due to a lack of time, we had to cut her from the script. Even the voiceover was something that I hadn't originally intended on doing, but we came up with later. Another change we had to do was the tilt to the sky during James and August's argument. Originally, the scene would've been filmed from the outside of the car, facing the front window, but due to obscured visibility and hearing, we had to open up the sunroof and film the scene from inside the car!

Working with others has definitely contributed to many of these changes. For example, it was team members' idea to include the voiceover, the ripped up letters and photos, and even the POV shot of Betty walking to the door. In fact, my original idea for this opening might be similar to the finished product, but it has gone through a complete evolution ever since I got more opinions and thoughts. Especially since we're in the time of COVID-19, we have to be especially careful working with others. To stay safe, we were actually thinking of making Tori film her conversation scene script off-site, so she wouldn't have to take off her mask with us around her. Realizing this might get complicated, Tori decided to take a risk and film her part at the same time as me. 

There are probably many things I would have done differently. For example, if I had more time, I still would've loved to include Inez in the scene, even though my partners might not agree. I also probably would've tried to make the conversation between James and August a little bit longer. I say this because it kind of cuts from James angrily getting in her car to an intense argument with little context on how things got so intensified. My original script included a short conversation while in the car to explain this heated conflict, but due to time, we had to cut it out.  

My spring break is next week, which means it is our last bit of time to make the finishing touches to our film. We will be making the final changes to our opening that will give us our final result! We will really be focusing on adding all the credits and title sequences, which I described in an earlier post. Tori will also be recording her voiceover and we will be adding it into the film, making sure it lines up with everything. After that, all we really have to do is watch the opening and make sure there are no errors and that everything looks good. Then, just like that, we're done! Stay on the lookout for more blog posts as we reach the finish line!