3/30/16 - Almost ready

Hello!
So I've been working these past few days on the storyboard and the shot list, and I am proud to say that I am almost done! I've asked Guste and Danny to take care of the scriptwriting but we haven't gotten much progress in light of that. I'll begin brainstorming tonight and run some ideas by them tomorrow. So far, we know our location settings, costume design, and actors, as well as the basic shots, angles, and compositions we want.

For our location settings we have chosen the Publix rooftop in Weston Commons, granted we get their approval and the vibrant walls of Wynwood Walls in Miami. Yesterday, Guste and I set out to find these locations but, sadly, the state of the weather held us back and we only had a limited time to research areas too. For our costume design we have decided to dress our main character, who has been given the name Johnny, in normal young adult clothing, since he will be portrayed around the ages of 20. For our homeless man, who we have named Brian, we will we be going to a thrift store in hopes of finding oversized cheap clothing that we could easily manipulate and sully to fit the appearance that he's been on the streets for a while. For our actors, we have decided that Danny will be one of our actors, playing Johnny, the young man, and that a mutual friend of ours, Diego Mendez, will play Brian, the homeless man.

I am going to be tidying up the storyboard and shot list now and will post it a little later. Due to our setback in accomplishing things we will have to cram more time to focus on editing, but I know we are capable of accomplishing it. We are planning on beginning shooting as soon as possibly, otherwise, we are definitely starting this weekend.

3/26/16 - Inspiration

I've looked up some opening and films that match our genre and I've found some pretty interesting stuff. First of all, I wanted to go back and re-watch a very mind opening show, Black Mirror, and in particular, the episode Whitebear, which used elements that we want to incorporate in the visuals and plot evolution. It offered a beginning that was completely unknown to both the protagonist and the viewers, which is basically how we want to start off our opening because innocence and vulnerability can quickly be manipulated. Also it has one of the key elements in our story, that the person who you believed in and trusted in the beginning, turns into someone you would never imagine, in which the protagonist in Whitebear is found to actually be a bystander to a murder, therefore not being as innocent and vulnerable as the audience had assumed in the beginning.

Another opening I really enjoyed, that embodied similar motifs as ours, was the movie Bourne Identity. A stranded man washes up somewhere with no recollection of who he is or how he got to where he is and he has something implanted in him, which also follows (somewhat) the mystery and adventure/journey we wanted our viewers to go on with our protagonist. We wanted to offer a lighthearted yet suspenseful movie that in the end would make the viewers feel hoodwinked. I think these are two very good examples of inspirations I've found. also, storyboard is moving along great, and the shot list as well. The show must go on!

3/26/16 - Archetypes

Alright, I have a pretty clear vision of where I want this opening to go. I decided not to dwell a lot on the end of the movie because that is not what we are creating, we just needed to know the real intentions of the movie and where is was going before working on the beginning. The film basically starts off innocent, with two protagonist, or our main characters, embarking on a journey together to find the truth of a situation, but quickly turns into something. The message of the film would basically be to be careful who you trust because people aren't aways who they say they are. Heres what Ive sort of been able to gather for what we want each of our characters to be like.

protagonist #1
Our main character is the one who wakes up on the roof, with a scar, who is, to say the least, confused. He is ready to put his trust in anyone but is still a little defiant in doing so, just like he is when we introduce him to the homeless man. Using this website that I used to figure out the basic archetype both of our characters fit under, I found that he most related to the Sage. I put him under the umbrella of the sage because he isn't necessarily the hero of the movie; on the contrary, he is a victim and a seeker of truth. We would establish him as coming from a humble background, and being a little too curious at times. We think that physicality and personality wise, we would like to find someone who could resemble Ryan Reynolds, who is both witty and curious but often confused, which is what were trying to go for.

Protagonist #2
Our next main character would be the homeless man on the roof. He is quite an interesting character because he is ultimately seen as a lighthearted and good person in the beginning of the film, but if we were to extend this to a full film, the audience would see a change in him, and see that he is a traitor to the main character and he was very deceptive since he led the character to believe he was someone who he was not. For these reasons, I would classify him under the 'do-gooder', because in some ways, in his perspective, he is doing good for his cause, he is testing out his research, to contribute to society and life. But in another lens, he is the evil archetype, because he is a traitor both to the main character and the audience. I came across this website that i found interesting because I could ultimately put him under the umbrella of Apollo, who is characterized as the traitor who has to take care of business.

Golden, Carl. "The 12 Common Archetypes." Soulcraft. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html>

"The 16 Character Archetypes." Hub Pages. N.p., 2 Feb. 2012. Web. <http://hubpages.com/literature/The-16-Character-Archetypes>.

3/24/16 - Storyboarding

My group and I have been having a hard time finding ways to communicate and discuss ideas due to our very busy schedules lately. This has taken a toll on the efficiency of our scheduling and I'm scared we are going to have to shift to the second gear in upcoming weeks to speed up the process. Recently, on my end, I've been looking up ways to construct a storyboard without having all of us to rely on one person having the storyboard or worrying about finding days to meet up. At first, I mentioned that we could all begin to form our own storying boards so that when we do meet up later in the week we could just merge and discuss our already predetermined ideas and create a shot list relatively quickly. Unfortunately, this brought us no where. So, I started taking things into my own hands. I've been researching different softwares and have begun sketching out our storyboard on my own digitally.

Thanks to this site, I was able to obtain and structure a few images that gave me a few more ideas for our film opening. Seeing the color scheme I had created in these three images I began looking more into color significance. I used this website to figure out that shades of brick red, caramel, and cloudy red, and basically any mixed warm color was significant of deception, determination, and ignorance.

I decided to start a story board on my own, using any tools I could find. I began scouting the App Store to find any app that could help me. Thats when I came across this really great app Celtx Shots. It basically helped me compile my story board by simply uploading images and inscribing my text and shot choices on-the-go since it is on my phone.

To sketch and create the images I went on my iPad and found a design app, SketchBookX, that helped me draw out and outline what I envision in a storyboard. Here below is an example from the work I began. The scene opens up to a pan going around the protagonist, that leads up to him, which would incorporate homemade opening credits. The next would be an extreme close up and close up of protagonist X waking up, and the next shot would be a panning mid shot to the left, which would then introduce the homeless man to the protagonist, who will be a vital character in the story. I will be posting more excerpts on the story board as I create them.

StoryBoard That. Digital image. Storyboardthat.com. Clever Prototypes, LLC, n.d. Web. <https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboards/luciepottecher/film>. 

"Color Chart." Eagle Spirit Ministry. Tsúnyöta Köhe't, n.d. Web. <http://www.eaglespiritministry.com/works/colorch.htm>.

3/19/16 New Idea

We're now towards the end of week 2 and we have yet to finalize any story board or shot list. I've been out of town for the past few days but I've been doing my best in trying to brainstorm any idea possible. I've come up with a few locations that could help set the mood that we wanted to portray. I was thinking perhaps that Wynwood Walls, or more simply, the art district of Miami, along with other areas throughout the city, could help display the run down look and environment that is going to seem foreign to our character. 

Also: typical me, I had a new idea last minute, that could help mend the story together a little more. So, our main protagonist wakes up, beeping, with a homeless man, but the question we were always faced with was, what the heck does the hobo have to do with all of this?

At first he was just a pawn in our game plan, someone who could be flexible to fit any situation or to make the situation funnier/more enjoyable.  But I'm starting to think that the homeless man should have a purpose. Therefore, my idea, would be to have our main protagonist wake up, not beeping, but still having a scar on his body. Basically, he was implanted with a chip that give him some sort of unnatural ability, and the homeless man is actual a scientist in disguise, working to test the patients mind, and observing the effect of whatever was put in the patients body. Of course, the viewer doesn't know this until later in the story, therefore, like we wanted to, we sort of trick the viewer and make the plot visibly more enticing. I'll run this by my group members and see what they think. Also, it could seem quite ironic to the viewer because in the beginning they think the protagonist is manipulating the homeless man but in reality, it's the homeless man triggering responses in the protagonist to get the results he wants. I think it could be an interesting concept.

(P.S.- I feel like we could advance the fact that he's being observed and watched by incorporating hand held shots from far away that could help foreshadow to the viewer that the reality they are perceiving isn't real)

3/16/16 Storyline!

Hello again! I'm very proud to announce that we finally agreed upon a consistent plot line! (ignoring the few small patches of inconsistency that need to be dealt with, of course) Over the past few days I have been stressing extensively (And maybe a little too much, given that I tend to be an overachiever at times and arrange my time to meticulously perfect any detail for any project) over the fact that we may be moving too slow or that we are taking too much of our sweet little time to all agree upon one stable idea.

Conflicting ideas and visions, given that we are a group of three, had become a big obstacle that we seemed to have many difficulties overcoming. Danny mindset seemed to focus more on story lines that revolved around crime, or incorporeal conflicts, such as a potential story where a man finds himself to mistake heaven for reality and and works his way to realize what is actually going on around him. We denounced this interesting and unique story when we realized that to make both the viewer as well as ourselves perceive and effectively show that this personis in conflict with their mental state, We did not have the time, techniques, or editing techniques to produce such a complicated idea.

Guste and and I steered more towards creating a simple plot that could be manipulated to entice the reader to see more to figure out more on the main protagonist. Earlier yesterday, I was absent from school due to some knee injuries that led to necessary medical care, Guste and Danny met up in groups to discuss each others progress and what they wanted to present to others. Guste told us about a very good idea that a classmate mentioned that good fit well with our story. Up until this point we had always envisioned our protagonist to be the reason for which he could not remember what had happened before, yet we had never considered that maybe he was put in a certain location, to do a specific task...

Here's a basic outline of what we discussed so far:

-Our main protagonist wakes up on a roof (or any other location could work, but we have stuck with roof for now.)

-Also, we haven't found a name for our character so for purposes of discussion until we figure out a name, 'X' is our new main character. We also wanted an easygoing looking type of character, which we found inspiration from from Ryan Reynolds)
-X starts hearing beeping noises, coming from around him. He's lightly bruised, as if he had taken part in a sort of hassle or fight. He looks down and finds a fresh scar on his body, which is where he then concludes that that is where the beeping is coming from.
-There is a homeless man sitting on the roof with him, the homeless man himself is quite quirky and funny and brings a lighthearted tone to the story, instead if it being all suspense and mystery.
-From then on, the homeless embarks on a journey with the beeping man to figure out why he is beeping, and speculates that he has a bomb inside of him.
-We wanted to use graphic matches and parallelism techniques to appeal to the eye during this opening so we had come up with the idea that certain objects, people, or colors may become triggering to X which make him flashback to a certain point in time of the night before to figure out what happens and/or figure what task he must fulfill.

as you can see were going more for a lighthearted blackmail type of film opening (Does that even sound right? Quite a unique mix)

Also, here is an amazing Tarantino case study that I often refer to that was available pre-made, which I had mentioned before that I was going to do. I also loved this website that talked about unique directors and they own different styles. Very interesting.

Later tomorrow I'm going to begin story boarding and/or begin developing archetypes and basic background info on the characters. All this planning is making me so impatient to begin filming!!

Safe House Fight Scene [Ryan Reynolds ]. Perf. Ryan Reynolds. Fighting Movies, 3 Oct. 2015. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK2JiXhjg08>

Susan. "Just Like Heaven." Between Naps on the Porch. N.p., 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 26 Mar. 2016. <http://betweennapsontheporch.net/tour-the-apartment-in-the-movie-just-like-heaven-in-san-francisco/>.

"Quentin Tarantino." Choice Reviews Online 44.05 (2007): n. pag. Http://2010year13.wikispaces.com. Web. <http://2010year13.wikispaces.com/file/view/Mark+Sison's+Director+Case+Study.pdf>.

Mentel, Thomas. "Auteurs: 7 Movie Directors Who Have Their Own Unique Style." The Cheat Sheet. N.p., 31 Aug. 2015. Web. 06 Apr. 2016. <http://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/7-modern-directors-and-their-distinctive-visual-styles.html/?a=viewall>.

3/13/16 - Getting closer

I excuse myself for not being as present as I started out with, I've been attempting to take a hiatus from, the frustration of not coming up with a mastermind plot in the span of 5 minutes, and mostly just focusing on the genre we had chosen and the structure we were going to follow and try to go on from there.

Friday, our class went to the media center and we were set up in groups where we were to discuss our blogs, and a basic outline of what issues we were facing our where we are with our projects. We started out by discussing about the different directors that intrigue us, such as Danny who takes a liking in Christopher Nolan's film as do I but in Quentin Tarantino's films. The other individuals with us, Kelly and Bella, helped us set up basically what we had to do in order to achieve the vision we had.

They told us to not expand on too many characters, unless they are important clues in the story line, and that if we were following the plot line where the protagonist have to work his/her way to figure out what exactly happened to them that we should have all of our elements in place in the story because I'm most of these story lines, like the hangover, for example. These being one of the numerous advice we gave us, I think we're pretty close to getting where we want to be. Kelly also told us that if we are having problems planning out the plot line from beginning to end that we should start from the end, which would be the beginning/resolution and then work our way back to the beginning of the story, which for us will start at the end. Seem confusing? Good. Hopefully by the end of this week now we will have storyboard drafts and be starting character archetypes. The research continue!

3/10/16 - How it all begins

I've been thinking about the whole organization of the film opening recently and i realize that the work, as a whole, will probably be more effective if we divide the work to ensure that each component coincides perfectly with the other. By doing so, we'll each be able to devote more time to the specific aspect that we have been given to research in depth and hopefully will be able to advance at a faster pace, since over the past few days we have been in a sort of deadlock amongst one another over which genre(s) we want our plot to parallel with. Since we are three different people, with three very different views, perspectives, and ideas, we'll have to dedicate more time and effort to ensure that all three of us feel comfortable and approve of the genre and the plot line that we chose.

Going back to my idea involving the division of work, I feel the need need to explain myself further. In my vision of the, hopefully, near future, once a general plot line/genre is established, I would try to propose the idea that one group member could work on effectively creating and mounting the specific archetypes of our main character(s), another would focus on defining and finding specific locations to shoot, such that it fits the plot, and that the other would work on the cinematographic aspect of it, whether it involves specific shots or compositions to fit the theme of the overall storyline.

Last night I met up with my group to discuss possible plot/genre ideas and, while most ideas had to be cast off to the side due to a myriad of disappointing dead end, we did seem to focus more on genres revolving around crime, mystery, comedy, or thriller. When I realized this while thinking about our discussions last night, I couldn't help but use Kill Bill Vol. I by Quentin Tarantino as an inspiration for such a genre mix. Disclaimer: I will probably refer to Tarantino and Spielberg often as I look up to them, my idols, for they're film choices and styles. Ive been thinking about posting a mini case study of my research later on regarding Tarantino and, especially, how he manages to merge themes, techniques, and personal style to his work. But before commencing this research, I found this highly resourceful TED Talk that gave me inspiration as to how to pool my groups ideas together.

For now, we have concluded that, if we were to work with the crime/mystery/etc. genres, we would envision a male protagonist who has to work his way to recall what happened to him the last twenty four hours as he wakes up, dazed and confused, either on a roof or even in a trunk, who's inspiration came from Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. Hopefully we'll be able to fit the plot with a consistent and coherent goal or motive in completing this film such that we can then move on and work on planning out more concretely our story.


TRUNKOFSHOTS. Digital image. Trunk of Shots. N.p., n.d. Web.

3/9/16 - Intro

Hello! My name is Lucie Pottecher and I am happy to announce that during the course of the next 6 weeks you will be following on a journey as I create a two minute film opening with my two other group members, Guste Janusauskaite and Danny Cooke. I'm very excited to begin a project of such magnitude, by incorporating, creating, and manipulated elements to bring together one idea and vision, but realize that i will curse the many obstacles I will face to get to the end product envisioned.

To know a little bit about me, I am 16 years old and I live in Weston, Florida. However, my native country, where I was born and raised for part of my childhood, is France, before making the journey across the Atlantic as a young child. I hope I'll be able to highlight my advantages in this project by my particularly vast and influenced knowledge on differing cultures, ideas, and views. I go to Cypress Bay High School and practically all my schedule is occupied by AP and AICE courses this year; Problem #1: Time management!

First up on the agenda, and most important to begin the planning process, we have to pick a genre! we have yet to regroup ourselves to discuss which genre we want to focus on. On my end, i know with utmost certainty that I will not be working with romance or horror genre creations. I have a vision of working with genres that could connect with plots that both help merge genres together as well as stray from the typical, predictable plot lines, which I hope wont be a problem.

 I know that in recent times I have been very intrigued by the cinematographic aspect of films and really hope that we'll be able to apply both an enticing plot line as well as an appealing visual component to our opening. I find that films who connect both dialogue and visuals under one common theme tend to have a more dynamic impact on making the message and emotional emphasis on particular scenes, or even films as a whole. We will certainly focus more on this after we come up with a plot line, and before that even, a genre. Im planning on researching possible genre and film inspirations that could help me narrow down a specific idea as to where our project could be directed towards.