CCR

Not Happening In Palm Beach

Not Happening In Palm Beach by Cesar Larez

Ideas Change

With everything said and done I just want to write about a few ideas that didn't make the cut.

I wanted to add more color in the shots, but then when it came down to it I felt like it was going to be way too much of a resemblance to Wes Anderson work, and yes I wanted to resemble it but also make it my own, I didn't want to copy him completely. Also when the day came to shoot I couldn't find anything that would look good with the shot I was trying to achieve.

I wanted to add an already existing song, preferably one that my friend Coco already had that was longer. He gave me permission and everything but as soon as the idea came to us that we could write out own song, we stuck to it and started working.

The beach shots were originally shots at a backyard that had a pool. Instead of towels they were pool chairs. The scene went exactly the same but I decided to shoot at the beach because it set the setting for him and I wanted to contrast him and her, because her shots don't really set anything.

I originally wanted to work with another actor to play Camila but at the time she couldn't make it and I didn't want to waste time and Isa was available so we went with it. I wanted to work with someone that was blonde and could really pull off the mean act.

These are some ideas that changed but ultimately got me to this piece of work that I am very proud of, no regrets what so ever.

Roadblocks

I finally finished with what I call the visual editing, put all the videos in order and made the story that I wanted to make visually. Then when it came to the audio it got a bit crazy. I added the song and tried to synchronize it to the best of my new found abilities but Miguel had to step in and help me because I wasn't getting far with it. We both finally got it right and then moved on to the first piece of dialogue the film has. When Dani's mom walks into the room and says "Dani, we have to go". The audio we made wasn't working, there was a problem and we couldn't add that audio of Dani's mom actually talking. So after brainstorming what we could do, I decided to record Miguel's mom saying that and adding it to the film, synchronizing it as well. We did exactly that and it worked, so it's basically, you see Dani's mom but you hear Miguel's mom. We moved on to the next dialogue where Camila (Isa Garcia) interrupts Chris while he is playing. We had another inconvenience, we couldn't hear anything from this one so we decided to do the same thing, luckily Isa lived closed by, so we called her over and she came out recorded hr piece and the we added it. After that I wanted to intensify the beach sounds, add some waves crashing, louder wind, beach sounds. So we got some beach sounds off of a Copy right free Youtube, one of those 32 hour long videos for people that want to fall asleep to beach sounds, and we added it. After we played with the volumed for a bit and we were FINITO.

Editing

I've been watching videos and getting help from my friends that know how to edit. I have learned a new skilled and I'm thrilled to put it to action. I think the easiest part is going to be putting each video in the order I want them to be in, make each cut, and adding the cut aways. The toughest part is really going to be getting the sound edit right because I have voice overs that I need to add, a whole song that I have to synchronize perfectly with the movement of Coco's hands so it looks like he's playing the guitar at a that moment. I'm going to get some more help from Miguel since he knows how to edit well and he did this project last year
Wish me luck

coffee

This weekend I helped my friend Maria Morales shoot her short movie project. She wanted me to act in her piece and I helped her out. While I was there I took the opportunity to ask her for some advice and some tips because she did this same project last year. She gave me some advice, told me that I shouldn't focus too much on the whole story, but mainly on the intro that's its really the only thing that would be shot. Also to over shoot, which I did, so I avoid continuity errors. The most important thing is that she helped me and gave me like a tutoring on editing, since I have no idea how to edit. So I took notes and worked a little on iMovie, still not the best at this but practice makes perfect.

Done

Yesterday me and Dani got to shooting the second part of the intro, which would be the scene where she is in her room, packing up. The scene goes a little like this: a still of a wall in her room and then it starts to tilt down next to the window and you see her walking up to take down a frame, that frame has a map of Georgia and says "Home is where the heart is" which explains where she is at right in the moment. She looks nostalgic and serious. While all of this is happening we hear the guitar from the scene at the beach. This is the first connection between the two characters. Dani starts singing as she grabs a painting that was on her bed, it's a painting of two palm tress at the beach, foreshadowing her destination. This is just one long take of Dani moving around the room, singing, and packing, as the song comes to an end, her mom walks into the room and says "Dani we have to go", Then a slow zoom into Dani as she looks nervous to embark in a new journey to a new destination that she will need to call home. Then the camera tilts, and will transition into Chris and Camila at the beach.

Huge shoutout to Daniela Paez, Miguel Rocha, Cristobal Mendez, and Isa Garcia, who helped me finish shooting and now I can say that I'm ready to edit.


Let's get it.

10290

We started shooting this weekend and we got all the beach scene done. I didn't want to shoot this whole scene on different days because I didn't want any continuity mistakes on the final cut. We got multiple shots from multiple angles for each frame work we're going to work with, and we over shot just so we had options and we made sure we didn't miss anything.

For this scene I used 3 towels placed strategically in the middle of the frame. On the right is going to be Camila, played by Isa Gracia, on the middle is going to be Chris, played by Coco, and no one will be on the right. I want to leave one of the towels alone because i want to foreshadow that something is missing and that another character is going to be important later on.

The most important part was that part where Chris is playing the guitar, and it is also important that I don't give much importance to Camila in the scene, I just show her not focus on her.

The audio is going to be pivotal that we get it right, we need to synchronize the audio with the close up video of the guitar, and keep everything as real as possible.

Up next is Dani's part and the GOOD OL' EDITING.

 

What you’re going to see

This is how I picture the intro:
When Chris is on screen, I want the shots to be long shots, I don’t want it to be that intimate with him, I want to focus more on the fact that he’s at the beach playing the guitar. I want to establish the setting, that would be the setting for the whole movie. I also want to get a cool close up of him playing the guitar, but it would only be the guitar and his hands, not him, so I still have that misters card.
When I’m shooting Dani, I want it to be the opposite, very close, very intimate. To get to know her but not her surroundings. I want the audience to notice her but not what she’s doing. So it also resonates with the mistery that Chris has on his shots.
They’re both clearly the main characters, the only other character we get to “meet” is Camila, Christians girlfriend, but we don’t really see much, in fact she’s the only character along with Dani’s mom, that has dialogue. Both of the dialogues kinda resonate, because they're both interrupting the music that Dani and Chris are enjoying simultaneously. Chris and Dani have no dialogue, so it’s  just another thing forshadowing the importance these two characters are going to have to each other.



This is more of less and example of a shot I want to recreate



This isn’t more or less how I would like the shot of Dani to look

People Dedicated To Dopeness

Yesterday we met with groups within our class. The point off the whole meet was to get feedback on our ideas and to get suggestion on how to make it better. It was great because some people got there with an idea and left with a totally different one, which is insane.
I explained my idea and what I had pictured and I got great feedback. My peers really liked the whole parallel stories thing and the fact that I incorporated my own song. I got some suggestions on some things. The main one was that I had to find a way to make people keep watching, and to make it more interesting. They gave me some composition suggestions and also told me that i should switch it up and and maybe split the screen half and half than rather just a full two minutes of back and forth. I was happy they liked the raw idea and I'm thankful they had suggestions because I had no doubt my original project was going to change at some point, and I'm glad it was because of my classmates who are also working on a project of their own.

Here is a little peak, we're going in.

Beach

I have chosen to shoot at the beach. Yes, I know that’s mainstream and an idea probably a lot of people have doing this project but I’m doing it with a purpose and a plan. My character Christian lives in West Palm Beach, and I want to contrast him and Daniela in many different ways, one of those being setting. She’s from Georgia, a place not known for beaches, colder, smaller, etc. Florida is all beach, I want Christian to represent Florida, and being set at the beach in the intro will leave no doubt that the main setting for this piece will be Florida. Also I feel like I can get some very beautiful shots at the beach, shots that will work for what I want to do. The shots of Christian at the beach will be very wide, mostly all long shots, not focused on him entirely but more on the fact that he is at the beach. The audience will have an “option” to focus on Christian, the water, the wind, the sand, etc. There are variables that can take the focus away from the character and since music will be played Hduring this, shots like these gives the audience chance to enjoy, not necessarily be looking for something.
I talked to my teacher Mrs. Stoklosa and she gave me some great scenes at the beach that I should go off of.

Her(2014) Spike Jonze:

I couldn't find the right video but heres the visual to what a scene that I could recreate at the beach, with a lot of cut-aways, shifting focus from the actor to the beach itself.

Moonrise Kingdom(2012) Wes Anderson:

 This one shows me how to make symmetric shots out of the composition. What  choose to put on frame its for a reason, also makes it more pleasing to the naked eye.