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.

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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. 

Our Story

The story is as follows:

Christian, who would be played by Coco, is an 18 year-old who lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. He resonates with the ocean, loves the beach, gets inspired by music,  and has a girlfriend named Camila. Their relationship is not the best and throughout we get to see how badly Camila treats Christian. The intro will start establishing the setting, the setting being the beach, tropical, etc, to get to know all that Christian is about. He will be at the beach with his girlfriend, she's on her phone not paying attention to him or the beach. Christian starts playing his guitar while he's sitting there at the beach, his comfort zone.

While Daniela, played by Dani, in Georgia is in her room packing her things. When she first gets into frame we can still hear the tine Christian was playing at the beach. She keeps on packing unbothered and then suddenly starts singing the lyrics to So Important. The song is about being scared to go somewhere you really want to go because of the expectations and feeling comfortable where you already are. While she's singing we get a little montage of her singing and Christian rocking out at the beach, his girlfriend Camila still doesn't pay attention to him. While he's playing she's singing and packing, foreshadowing a connection between the two. After a while of the song Daniela's mom will storm into the room looking stressed, she says something like "Daniela are you ready? let's go!" and closes the door again. Then we get a shot of the house and we see Daniela walking out and getting in the car. She's moving, and she's moving to where Christian lives, Florida.

After we find out Daniela is making an appearance, Christian is still playing the guitar and now we hear Camila for the first time out of frame on a conversation on the phone. The camera slowly zooms out and we see Camila and her action is to make Christian stop playing the guitar so she can continue her conversation in peace. Christian stops, gets up and goes towards the water. 

 As of now thats all I have, I'm sure there will be modifications and some things will be deleted in the process.

So Important

As I said before, the music in this film was going to be really important. The song choice was going to determine a whole story line. Today I got to work on the song, and i decided I was going to write a song. It is going to be short and simple because I don't have time to put a whole song in this video. I got the chance to work with amazing people, my good friend Coco, Cristobal Mendez, and my other friend Daniela PaezPumar. Coco basically produced to whole song, and did the music, his amazing ability to work a guitar and a computer with the help of Daniela's beautiful voice and my words on paper came out to this beautiful song that I think will work perfectly with what I want to do. These are the lyrics to So Important by Cesar Larez, Daniela PaezPumar, and Coco Mendez.
"Sunny days, swimming just for fun
not a single thing that I have to get done.
Palm trees waving in the wind
such a simple thing, but it makes my head spin
I'm all alone
can't leave it behind
why is it so important if its what I will find,
I'm all alone."

 Here are some pictures of us working on the song

Example

Yesterday I took the recommendation of a really good friend of mine, that is also helping me out in this project, and I watched Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino). I just watched it to enjoy it, no relation to this project what so ever, but how can I say I want to shoot a love story and not talk about this film. This film is pure organic love, without consequences or extended risks. A story about two people falling in love, no matter age, sexuality, religion, heritage, etc. I feel like this movie is important, people should watch and understand no matter if it makes them uncomfortable.
Not only was the storyline amazing, but the scenery, costume design, cinematography, everything combined just makes it beautiful. We get to know so much about two characters just by the way Luca decided to shoot them. Close ups to see their reaction and to feel what they are feeling, establishing shots to get to know the setting, and fall in love with the little Italian town that you've never seen or heard before. Lighting, lighting, lighting. Luca focuses so much on lighting that just on shot is a wall and it goes from dark to bright as if the sun was just coming up at that exact time.
Prime example of a love story, and again I feel like a love story has multiple love affairs in it's self. We see the main one, the we see Elio with his parents, Elio with his friend, Oliver with his friend, Family with the workers, the town, etc. We need to understand that LOVE is just not boy girl, LOVE is boy girl, boy boy, girl girl, friends, family, animals, fruits, everything.

         By the way, you should watch this movie.

                                                                                   

I'm learning

Basic elements of a romance:
Main character will be pursuing two different desires, to obtain true love, and to deal with the conflict  that is an obstacle on their love. Always focus on the journey, how the two main characters fell in love, not what happened after, and always have a happy ending. I don’t really agree with the last part but I guess that’s mainstream.
I need to have questions, questions that will keep the audience on their toes and paying attention to what’s going to happen. These questions will help develop the story and keep it moving forward. Some examples can be questions like: Who do they fall in love with? How do they meet? Why can’t they be together? Who is against them? Etc. Since I only have to shoot the intro, I feel like I need to leave the questions for the audience to make. The purpose of the intro is basically to get the audience intruguied to keep on watching, asking themselves why? How? When? ,etc. The questions I ask my self to develop the story, and the questions I leave the audience to make will be very important.

 
Little gif, because I'm excited for what's coming.

Romance in Film

I want to shoot a love story, and accordion to Filmstite I should focus on the passion and affection of the main characters. I also have to focus on the journey. This would be the plot. What is their conflict? How are they going to over come it?. In all romance films the couple has a conflict of why they can't be together or why they have to hide their relationship, etc. So what I need to do is before figuring the story out, I need to figure out what their conflict is going to be. Romantic films also touch the term " love at first sight", and they rely on it. In these movies it takes as much as a point of view shot, and a close up to tell the audience that the " love at first sight" thing is happening. These movies also tend to make the audience believe that love is the strongest bond you could have, and it overcomes all harshness.
Another important thing about Romance films is the music. The typical song that connects the main characters. The music choice for this project is going to be important, and since I have to ask for permission I started looking for that song today.

Aesthetically pleasing

Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson): This movie is symmetry at it's finest. Wes Anderson makes almost every shot symmetric and colorful. The composition of the shots makes it a joy to watch. I picked this movie because I want to mimic some techniques that Anderson uses. I want to obviously include symmetry in a way that helps me tell the story, helps me tell it through the pictures and shots without me actually saying the words or message. I also want to have colors help me connect the stories. Colors that will also help me make the shots more pleasing to the eye.

This film also includes the love aspect that I want to include in my film. This film shows how two kids at two different places find each other, but since they are kids, love isn't really a term they are familiar with so the story also includes them figuring out how to "love".



Another movie that I also enjoyed aesthetically is Lady Bird, directed by Greta Gerwig. I enjoyed the establishing shots and scenery. The way Greta shot her characters made the movie way more intimate. I also noticed that this is a great example of a romance. There is love displayed between the main character and a male character, there is love between a mother and a daughter, between a father and a daughter, and between friends. We get to experience love connected to other love affairs and we see how it plays out.
         

Lets get started

I am excited, this project allows us to create something that is going to be completely ours, and I can't wait to get started.
My ideas are all over the place, but after sitting down and picturing, I think I've decided on something to fall back on. The idea would be, two simultaneously parallel stories. Two different people in two different places that contrast each other, contrast in every way, environment, shots, angles, composition, vibe, etc. They are both connected by one thing, music. Without anyone knowing these two people synchronize and harmonize on the same song. After that they would both be abruptly interrupted and are forced to stop singing to focus on something "more important".
I want to focus on music because it is important to me, I want to take something that means a lot to me and display it on screen in a way that it can connect to people. Different genres and different music styles connect to different people and that is what I would try to do.
I don't have all the answers to all the questions I have but, I hope time helps me find my own answers to my own questions about this project and I can't wait to see what I can do and see where I can take this.