Production Planning 2

Script 

I created a script to help myself direct the opening. I used a formatting template and found directions to make it like an actual script, it all feels so official now. Here is a screen shot of the website where I found the template, I thought it was really useful to have various examples to look at.

Screenplay scripts are used as part of the planning process for films and TV shows as they are used to put someone's idea or vision into words so other people can understand it and bring the production to life. Scripts describe the setting, the key mise-en-scene elements, the character's attitudes, and the dialogue between characters. It is like a set of instructions for the director to interpret. 

I think scripts are really useful and key to a successful production so here is a link to my script!

Sources:

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/screenplay-example-download/

Production Planning

 Storyboard

I created a storyboard to plan out the scenes and shots I want to do for my opening. I will use this as a guide and starting point for the production process of the film opening. It is rough draft and it helped me organize my thoughts and ideas.

Here is a copy of my storyboard:

I know it is not perfect and that my drawing skills are not amazing, but creating this helped me map how I want to organize the scenes and which scenes are crucial for the plot to be understood. I will make my script next, basing it on this storyboard. I am excited to start recording, which will happen soon. I know I might still change or replace a few things, but I still want to plan correctly and set myself up for the best outcome possible. 

Plot Summary

Not My Intention  

I finally developed the full plot for my film opening so here is a short summary of the plot and what I plan to produce for the opening. 

Summary;

Jade meets Maia on the first day of her senior year when Maia parks next to her, scratching her car. Jade is annoyed at her and does not look forward to parking next to her the entire year. As she walks into the school and receives her class schedule, she realizes she was placed in an art class, which is something she never planned to take and rushes to her counselor. They explain to her that she is missing an art credit to be able to graduate, so even though she is not happy about it she has to take the class. 

When she walks into class, she realizes Maia is there, not as a student but as an assistant. Maia offers to help her pass the art class if she does not make her pay for the car repairs and Jade initially refuses. As the week progresses she realizes she sucks at art and will probably fail the class if she does not accept Maia's help.

They end up helping each other and as they spend time together and get to know each other they end up falling in love. None of them wants to accept it at first, but they slowly start letting their feelings come through. Everything seems to be going well until Jade's friends ask her why she is always hanging out with "that weird girl Maia," she responds that she is only doing so to pass the art class, which is a lie, but when Maia overhears this conversation her feelings are hurt. Then, they into an argument, and Maia refuses to keep helping her. 

They stop helping each other and hanging out and Jade stresses out about her final project. In desperation she asks Maia to help her, who is offended by her audacity. Jade realizes how much she misses her and creates an art piece inspired by Maia. Once she presents it to the class, she apologizes to Maia while dedicating her art piece to her. Maia decides to forgive her and they get together as an official couple. 

Opening:

For the 2-minute opening, I was thinking of starting on the inside of Jade's car and showing her getting ready to get down and go to class. I would like to show the inside of the car and have a few objects that represent her personality to show them. I would also like to include the credits during this sequence of close-ups. During this whole beginning part, I plan to include music in the background and pretend it is what Jade is listening to in her car, whenever Maia gets there and scratches the car the music will stop and the title "Not My Intention" will appear on screen. The last part of the opening is going to be the two of them getting out of the car and starting to argue. 

I am so excited to produce my opening, especially now that I have a clear idea of what I want it to be. I might still change a thing or two but for now, I feel really happy with my idea! 

Incorporating Media Theory

 Binary Opposition Theory 

I decided to research the binary opposition theory because the two main characters in my story are opposites that attract. 

Many concepts cannot be fully understood without considering the opposite idea. For example, the concept of loudness cannot be fully understood until one knows quietness, and this goes for any other set of opposites like hero vs. villain, kind vs. selfish, or light vs. darkness. One cannot exist without the other. Claude  Lévi-Strauss believed that the structure of the world was based on binary opposition and that is how we as humans make sense of our existence. 

The film world often presents opposite concepts by exploring the gray area between them. Contrast and comparison tend to attract audiences and engage them. The most common ways the film industry uses binary opposition are:

• Hero vs. Villian
• Relaxed vs. Tense
• Strong vs. Weak
• Humanity vs. Technology
• Black vs. White
• Masculinity vs. Femininity

However, there is a prominent issue with stereotypes used to create opposition. For example, saying men and women are opposites because men are brave and strong while women are scared and helpless. Another stereotype would be that wealthy people do not associate with poor people or that someone brave is immediately superior to someone scared. The idea that one is always better than the other is not always ideal as binary opposition is not about establishing which one is best, instead, it is about better understanding concepts through the contrast between them.   

Examples: 

The entire movie series of The Hunger Games explores the contrast between the Capitol and the 13 Districts and how their social status separates them from one another. The newest movie,  The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, explores the gray area between them with the character of Lucy Gray Baird, as she is neither district nor capital. She lives in the districts but stands out with her colorful clothing and defiant and loud personality. 

The Harry Potter movie franchise explores opposition by having magical characters and also mortals who are not part of the magical world. In the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, they explore the gray area between the two by including characters who are "muggle-born" or "halfbloods," meaning that they do not completely belong to either group. 

Another example is Titanic as it explores the concept of two characters of different social statuses falling in love. Their relationship is not allowed as social classes were not supposed to mix and wealthy people valued their status and money above everything. The love story in this movie still alludes to the binary opposition theory, even if it does not abide by the typical stereotypes of the time. 

One more example is the movie Ratatouille, where the contrast between humans and rats is an interesting concept, as rats are usually seen as disgusting rodents. The friendship between Linguini and Remy shows that just because they are opposites does not mean they cannot get along. It also goes against the typical stereotypes of rats as in this movie Remy is a chef. 

Takeaways:

I plan to include the binary opposition theory in my film opening as the contrast between my two characters is a key aspect of the story. The idea that opposites attract works because people can complement each other when they have different personality traits that offer what the other one is missing. My characters will have a lot to learn from each other as they will share their different ideas and lifestyles and slowly realize they can enjoy going out of their comfort zone and being a little more like the other.

Sources:

https://media-studies.com/binary-opposition/

https://beverlyboy.com/filmmaking/how-is-binary-opposition-in-film-used/

Representation Research

 Queer Representation 

Queer representation in film is key so that everyone can feel represented. There have been many issues with LGBTQ+ representation in media because of the overused stereotypical tropes and inaccurately representing queerness. This has led to misconceptions about the community and increased homophobia as being queer is often portrayed as being out of the norm and wrong. It creates a stigma around homosexual and transexual people and it alienates them. This can lead to queer people feeling like they do not belong and have negative impacts on young people who are still trying to figure out their identity and sexuality. In addition, it has been proven that the LGBTQ+ community is perceived more positively by individuals who have seen accurate queer representation in the media. Although in the last few years, queer representation has greatly increased and improved in the film world and in media in general it is not nearly enough as many misconceptions and homophobic stereotypes are still present. 

Typical Tropes:

Several overused and homophobic stories are used to represent queer characters in film, this type of representation is discriminatory as it portrays stories that most queer people do not resonate with. The three most common ones are the male idealization of lesbian couples, the use of camps to explore queerness, and the portrayal of gay people with HIV/AIDS. These homophobic stereotypes put gay people in a box and it makes them feel like there is something wrong with them as the media shows that they "are not normal." These ideas can have a very negative impact on queer individuals and that is why queer representation needs to be respectful, relatable, and genuine. 

I hate the idea of a character being known as "the gay one," why does their sexuality have to be their entire personality, I think there are many other characteristics people should be remembered by, as their sexuality does not define them as a person. I want to avoid this in my production and I want my characters to be remembered for their personalities instead of their sexuality. 

Do It Right:

For queer representation to be considered good the character must be identifiably queer, they must be significant to the plot and they must have a personality that goes beyond their sexuality. I want to make sure my characters are a good representation of the queer community as this is something really important to me. 

Here are some productions I think do a good job at representing queer characters: Moonlight, The Half of It, The Owl House, She Ra, and Sex Education. 

Sources: 

https://rhetorikos.blog.fordham.edu/?p=1903

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/gay-representation-on-screen-film-glaad-study-1235590485/

Group Meeting Reflection

 Helping Each Other!

Today in class we have group meetings to hear other ideas and offer feedback. It was a beneficial activity as we helped each other work through the issues we each had and the constructive criticisms and new ideas served as inspiration on how to improve our projects. Here is a picture of us during our meeting:

First, Isa told us about her coming-of-age film idea and how she started by developing a character before she thought about the plot. She shared her research with us and said she could not decide between doing a voice-over in her opening or focusing on character development and setting instead. We suggested she focus on character development as character is one of the main aspects of her production. In addition, she said she did not like the idea of having the credits on a black screen and would rather incorporate them in objects as the opening progresses. We agreed with her idea since she wanted the audience to be engaged from the very first second instead of ignoring the credits. 

https://ilovesunsetsandyoga.blogspot.com/ 

Then, Layla told us she is also thinking of producing a coming-of-age story. She does not have the entire plot set out but she told us about her main character and how she is very insecure because of social media and how she wants to center the story around that. We gave her suggestions on how to start the opening and she said she wanted to do something like scrolling on social media and comparing herself to other girls on the internet. I suggested she incorporate the credits of the film in the social media post and she thought it was a clever idea. 

https://lsherm22.blogspot.com/

Danielle told us she wants to create a thriller and how she wants to start her opening with an agent investigating and examining the evidence in a crime scene. She wanted to incorporate flashbacks to the actual crime whenever the agent touched the objects and we gave her suggestions to create the transitions between the present and the past. We suggested she use filters and lightning to differentiate the timelines as well. She was worried her idea was going too hard to create but we encouraged her and helped her come up with ways to achieve the scene she had in mind. 

https://danilovesblogs13.blogspot.com/

Andre shared his idea to create an action thriller about a group of gamblers who are trying to settle their debts. He wanted to start with all of them sitting around a poker table and he wanted to zoom in and stop in each one of them to edit text to say their name and explain their personalities. We all agreed it was a fun idea but told him he needed to schedule enough time to edit if he wanted to turn out the way he was picturing it. He also mentioned that he wants music to be playing in the background and how he plans to incorporate the credits within the mise-en-scene elements. 

https://potatoarg.blogspot.com/ 

Next, Diego told us about his idea for a horror story about a guy being trapped in an infinite forest with a monster. He did not have a clear idea of the plot and asked for our help to connect his opening with the rest of the film. We suggested he did a flashback to the past to explain how the guy got there and show that there is more than just the opening to the film. We also encouraged him to develop the full plot before he established the opening scene.

https://ruzlog.blogspot.com/

Lastly, they all helped me improve my ideas. I told them how I was thinking of having my two characters meet in a situation that made them annoyed at each other, but they told me it would not be clear that they would eventually fall in love if there was no hint of attraction, which I will make sure to include in my opening. They liked the idea of arguing over a parking spot or getting into a small car accident to initiate an argument and said that the contrasts between my characters would allow for an interesting. I thought the group meeting was really helpful as I got honest feedback about my ideas and they helped me come up with ways of solving issues and improving my overall project. 

Character Development

Characters Start Coming to Life

I decided to create a queer romantic comedy because I wish that was something I could've watched growing up. Representation is so important and I feel like many queer stories inaccurately represent the LGBTQ+ community. As someone who discovered such a big part of myself in my teenage years, I wish I had watched more stories where lesbians are just people who fall in love, the same way hetero couples do instead of a freak show created to please the male gaze. I am tired of cliche characters and stories filled with homophobic stereotypes. I will strive to make my story relatable and focus on the actual love story instead of making a big deal about it being queer. 

Jade

The main character in the film is a girl named Jade, whose main goal is to succeed academically and go to college to major in biochemical chemistry. She is a hard worker and keeps her life together, she is organized, responsible, mature, and resilient. She loves challenges and likes her healthy lifestyle. She is not overly social and prefers to focus on herself and managing her busy schedule. She is going through the beginning of her senior year in high school, stressed about college applications but ready to enter her adult life. She lives alone with her father since her mom left when she was a baby, her dad tried to be there for her as she grew up, but because of his demanding job and work trips, he was somewhat absent. She has always wanted to make him proud and show him she can succeed as much as he does. 

Here I am attaching a mood board I made to represent her, her personality, her hobbies and her vibe. 

Maia

Maia is Jade's love interest whom she will meet in the opening of the film. She is funny, extroverted, carefree, enthusiastic, and charismatic. She loves music, painting, cooking, and spending time outdoors. She does not worry too much about the future and she prefers to enjoy the present. She is the oldest daughter in a loving family with 4 kids. She has helped take care of and raise her little brothers and sisters and therefore is very protective of the people she loves. She is adventurous and silly and does not care what other people think about her. She is a junior in high school who has no set plans for her future but to have fun. I also made a mood board to encapture her essence as well:

I am excited to continue to develop a story for these two characters! I had a lot of fun creating their personalities and making the mood boards, I love the creative freedom this project offers. I might still tweak one thing or two about the characters as I finish developing their story but I am pretty happy with what I have going on so far.