Critically Reflecting Upon Myself

The following is my critical reflection for the A-level project:

Simplify, Simplify

I previously posted my poster on this blog; however, that was one of my longest posts, so, for simplicity's sake, I am re-posting the poster, plain and simple.

Two Trailers, Comin' Up!

Trailer 1:

Music licensing:
"The Escalation" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Trailer 2:

Music licensing:
"Undaunted" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

If There's a Minimalism, is there a Maximalism?

Posters are hard. There. I said it. I am not a graphic designer, have never taken a class on computer programs, and I only know how to use basic tools on Photoshop.

However, I know more than Lisa, so this wonderful task was handed over to me (to be fair, the website was handed over to Lisa).

Because of my lack of knowledge with all things design, I took to researching. I started with "what makes a good movie poster." Next, I researched drama movie posters. Then, I thought about how to make ours different, so I looked into minimalist movie posters (minimalism is in right now, right?). From there, I noticed that many minimalist posters are also graphic posters, so I took the time to look into those.

With all these poster ideas running through my head, I got stuck on the idea of branding. We need a central image that can carry over between all media, as well as one that can be used for the campaign we're our production companies are starting to go along with the movie.

That, my dear friends, was when I recalled The Hunger Games poster:

It's a graphic, central image that is representative of not only the movie but also the cause. Granted, this cause is fictional, but the idea is still the same. The best part was that The Hunger Games has just about the same target audience as Alma's Angel, so I knew that this marketing technique would work. Picking an image was easy: The movie is called Alma's Angel, so our graphic should be wings. I had the perfect movie poster sitting in my brain.

After all this, though, I still didn't know how to make the poster, so I once again took to the Internet, uncovering this little beauty:

A wonderfully large photo of a basic outline for a movie poster.

We already had a font, I had our central image, and we knew who the actors all were. I quickly came up with a hashtag (#BeTheChange) and less-quickly came up with a tagline (It only takes one person to make a difference). All that was left was putting it all together.

Wow. I just made that process sound so much easier than it actually was. Suffice it to say, Photoshop is not a user-friendly program. But I did it! It's complete!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am so much more than simply proud to present the completed movie poster for our film,  Alma's Angel. You may begin the applause.

The completed poster for Alma's Angel, credits, ratings, and all.

And, because no long message is complete without a P.S., here's mine: I also made a campaign poster. Here it is:

This poster will be featured in our trailers.

And Again

Our second trailer will be much darker. We decided to make a more sad, struggle-driven trailer to appeal to those who enjoy more dramatic films. The script is as follows:

Black screen.

NORA

Something happened. Something bad. And nothing will ever be the same.

Abridged version of suicide scene, interspersed by flashes of black, fading in and out, more somber music. Drinking alcohol, grabbing pills, sinking into bathtub. A drum beat per shot

REPORTER

In other news, 17-year-old Alma Rodriguez committed suicide last night (pause). The Harrison High school junior was reportedly being bullied at school for being gay and died from drowning herself in her bathtub.

Shot of grieving family, sitting at table covered in black. Shot of memorial made by students with pictures, teddy bears, flowers

RAINA

Why are you doing this?

NORA

To make what happened to Alma never happens to anyone - gay, straight, whatever - ever again.

A bully stands, screaming, with a crowd surrounding him, laughing.

BULLY

You’re nothin’ but a bunch of FAGGOTS!

Nora riding bike, with fliers under her arm. Nora looks broodingly at mirror. Nora stares into her bath.

RAINA

You can’t do it. It’s impossible - the people, the prejudices - they’re not going to change. You can’t possibly take on the world.

Large crowd of people flocking to table and signing up.

NORA

You can take on the world, or let it take you. But it should always be your choice. It only takes one person to make a difference.

To Begin Again

Now that we have completed our AS project, Lisa and I have begun work on our A-level project. In order to ensure we have enough time, we decided that we should spend our class time writing the scripts for our two trailers so that we can start filming as soon as possible. We have completed the script for the first trailer, which will be uplifting and inspirational. Our script (which, if our opening was any indication, will probably need to be cut down) is as follows:

Black screen. As REPORTER voice is heard, the screen fades into an image of ELEANORA making eggs in the kitchen.

REPORTER

In other news, 17-year-old Alma Rodriguez committed suicide last night.

ELEANORA whips around, dropping the egg-y whisk on the ground. Report takes over the screen.

REPORTER

The Harrison High school junior was reportedly being bullied at school for being gay and died from drowning herself in her bathtub.

ELEANORA

Oh my God.

Fade to black. Cut back in to see Eleanora, flyers in hand, walking from door to door, handing out flyers and giving speeches.

ELEANORA

I thought Alma was really brave. She put up with a lot of shit just for being gay, and I always admired her. I’m bi, and I never really told anyone and she just… I dunno. It’s my last year, and I want to make sure that what happened to your sister never happens to anyone again.

Cut to ELEANORA’s face, pleading with RAINA.

ELEANORA

Or, y’know, at least try.

RAINA

I appreciate that, but now isn’t the time.

ELEANORA

I understand. I’ll go. I just wanted you to know.

Fade to black. Cut to ELEANORA opening her door to RAINA, the two of them working on Photoshop, RAINA passing out flyers on campus. While this is happening, ELEANORA’s doing a voiceover.

ELEANORA

There is no difference between us. Gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, demisexual, transgender, and all the rest: we’re all just people trying to make it in the world, trying to find our joy and our pleasures.There is no need to be cruel to each other. There is no need to belittle those who are different from us.

Life gives us enough troubles.

Cut to ELEANORA on a stage.

ELEANORA

Why do we need to help it along the way? Sign the pledge, join Alma’s Angels, and together, we can make a difference in lives across the city, across the nation, and maybe even across the world.

Completions and Reflections

I am proud to introduce our complete AS-level two-minute opening*:

The following is my critical reflection of the above project:

*Because our music is Creative Commons, we were required to include all of the extra information about the creator, the website, and the piece in our credits.

Forwards and Backwards, in G-flat

So, Glassnote Records never responded. We called them several times, and they only picked up once. That conversation simply established that some upper-management people somewhere were looking at our request.

We waited as long as we could. Literally. I only added the music an hour or so before Lisa and I posted our video. But alas, the news never came. Our Glassnote plan fell flat.

But it was some kind of blessing in disguise. After watching our opening with Heart of Nowhere, we were thrilled with the outcome. We both love the effect of this dog and the feelings it evokes in the viewer.

And now it's over. Our AS project is officially complete, and we can begin the journey that is our A-level promotion project.

dafont.com is dabomb.com

A couple weeks ago, Lisa and I chose the font Aver to represent our film.

The alphabet and numbers in Aver.

We wanted something clean and simple, yet classy and more refined. Our film is serious, and we felt our font should reflect that. So, utilizing the amazing capabilities of dafont.com, we tested out our title with various fonts, finally settling on Aver.

Music can be Quite the Perplexing Condundrum

So now we have our film and after much deliberation (we've been throwing songs at each other since the second day we started working on the project, much to both of our frustration), we have picked our song: Medicine by Daughter. We like the the beat, the lyrics, the mood it sets, everything.

Then we had to obtain the rights to use it. After researching the record company that runs Daughter's music rights, Glassnote Records, we found the proper person to contact about gaining said rights and subsequently emailed a Mr. Marc Nicolas.

Lisa's original email to Marc Nicolas, sent on March 16.

Well, we contacted who we thought -- based off of the company's FAQ page -- was the right person. Our email somehow landed into Mr. Chad Brown's inbox, and the next day, he responded to our inquiry.

The response Lisa received from Chad Brown on March 17.

Fun fact: we got this email at 8:43 p.m. the night before we had to wake up at 4 a.m. to catch a flight to New York for a journalism convention, where we wouldn't exactly have a lot of time or computer access to work on this. Therefore, when we weren't sure how to answer some questions for the document and needed to contact our teacher for assistance, we were in a bit of a bind. 

The document we had to fill out. We weren't sure what to put for territory (U.S., U.K., or international?), duration of use (did we need it just until our project deadline, a few weeks after, maybe even a year?), or options (we just had no idea).

While we received a response from our teacher the next day, our location hindered us from being able to complete the document until we got back on Sunday. So now we've done as much as we can and we're waiting for a response from Glassnote Records.

Undecided and Indecisive

So, we filmed. We recorded. We got varying shots and angles. We've only done the suicide scene.

Yet our time is up. Based off of my quick editing, that bit alone is one minute and forty-four seconds.

So now I'm conflicted. Do we shorten this to include this rest of the script? Do we just keep this as our opening? If we cut it down, what do we eliminate? 

How do director's do this? I've always watched deleted scenes from movies I loved and lamented the loss of wonderful scenes, criticizing the people who decided it would be a good idea to leave them out. Now, I get it. Not every decision; I can't be swayed that easily. But some of those decisions, I now understand 100 percent.

First Filming Fiesta

Note: This video was made on Friday, March 14.

Unnamed: The Complete Script for the Two-Minute Opening to a Film We Haven't Named Yet

Low angle shot of a girl’s bedroom with the door closed. We see a Alma open the door (alcohol in hand), walk in, and close the door as she tosses her backpack to the side, taking swigs from the bottle. MUSIC starts playing. She kicks off her shoes and walks into the bathroom, turning on the tub. She then goes to the medicine cabinet and pulls out several pill bottles, downing an indeterminable amount from each, using the alcohol to help them go down. By this time, the tub is full and she steps into it, fully dressed. She closes her eyes, sinks til she’s almost under the water, and the screen fades to black. Over the black screen, we hear a casual news report about a lost dog being found.

REPORTER

The Grayson family is very grateful they were able to find Spot after a large group from the community got together to search for him on Friday. They will be offering free ice cream at their parlor, Berries and Cream, tomorrow, Sunday March 12, to everyone who helped out.

Cut to ELEANORA making eggs in the kitchen.

REPORTER

In other news, 17-year-old Alma Rodriguez committed suicide last night.

ELEANORA whips around, dropping the egg-y whisk on the ground. Report takes over the screen.

REPORTER

The Harrison High school junior was reportedly being bullied at school for being gay and died from drowning herself in her bathtub.

ELEANORA walks forward, grabbing the remote.

REPORTER

A memorial service for close family and friends will be held on Tuesday at 4 in the Rodriguez's home. The school has refused to comment, and our hearts and thoughts go out to the family during this troubling time.

ELEANORA shuts the TV off, then clutches the remote to her chest. Fade to black.

Open to ELEANORA at the door to RODRIGUEZ house. She knocks. SISTER opens door.

ELEANORA

Hi, my name’s Eleanora. I, um, I went to school with --

RAINA

This is for friends and family only. We don’t want anyone from school here.

RAINA starts to close door.

ELEANORA

Wait, please,

RAINA stops.

ELEANORA

I know, I understand. I just wanted to say that I thought Alma was really brave. She put up with a lot of shit just for being gay, and I always admired her. I’m bi, and I never really told anyone and she just… I dunno. It’s my last year, and I want to make sure that what happened to your sister never happens to anyone again. Or, y’know, at least try.

RAINA

Listen, I really appreciate that, but now isn’t the time. I just can’t right now.

ELEANORA

I understand. I’ll go. I just wanted you to know.

RAINA closes door. ELEANORA walks back to her car, closes the door, sighs, and turns the car on. Cut to TITLE SCREEN.

Naming and Casting and Thinking and Wondering

This post will essentially be the "who's who" and "what's what" for our opening two minutes.

Character list:
Eleanora Lee is our main character. After the death of Alma, she is determined to change the way not only her school but also her country views LGBT+ people and also to fight against the rampant bullying of these students. Because she is such a leading force in a just cause, we wanted the meaning of her name to reflect that. Her full name is Eleanora, which in Greek means "light" and in Latin means "woman of honor;" however, her close friends and family will call her Nora.

Source: Think Baby Names

Alma Rodriguez is our driving force. She is representative of all the LGBT+ kids and teens who have been driven to killing themselves because they are so horrifically bullied while adults simply stand by. Alma was true to herself and a strong individual, although the audience will not be able to know her well. She is Hispanic because Lisa and I wanted to have solid representation in our film, and with only four characters in our opening (and two of them being sisters), we decided to represent Hispanics. Alma, which is a Hispanic name, means a kind soul or learned, and we felt this fit Alma well.

Source: Think Baby Names

Raina Rodriguez is Alma's older sister by two years. She is a college freshman and was very protective of her sister; she hated that she couldn't be home to protect Alma from her classmates. Thus, we looked for a name that meant "protector" or "guardian" but was also a believable name for her culture, and we came up with Raina.

Source: Think Baby Names

Cast list:

• Eleanora Lee............Elanna Heda
• Alma Rodriguez............Lisa Burgoa
• Raina Rodriguez............Ines Acosta (tentative)
• Reporter............Lisa Rienhardt

Overview? When was it Underview?

The following is an overview of our film's plot. While the film will not be created in its entirety for this project, we will need to represent it through two trailers, so we saw it fit to complete an overview.

Seventeen-year-old Alma Rodriguez kills herself from bullying because she’s LGBT+ (particularly, a lesbian). Main character (MC), Eleanora Lee, finds out and is angered because she’s also LGBT+ (bisexual). While mourning, she decides Alma should not have died in vain and launches a campaign, similar to The Trevor Project, It Gets Better, or Silence Hurts. She’s met with obstacles such as being bullied herself, struggling with her school’s administration, her parents not being supportive, etc., but Nora (Eleanora’s nickname) perseveres. She contacts outside companies that fight violence against LGBT+ students/people and manages some small successes with her campaign. The film will never see a complete resolution because nobody can solve this problem so easily, but Nora will make progress.

P.S. For those not obsessively aware of Friends, the title of this post is a reference to one of Ross Geller's lines. 

Progress

I feel like Lisa and I are on the right track and moving at a great pace. I know, big disparity from my last post, but we've accomplished a lot in the past couple of days. Let's enumerate in order of size of accomplishment because, as I've shown, I'm a big fan of lists:

1. Finished first draft of our script
2. Made plans to begin filming on Friday (!!!)
3. Tentatively cast actors
4. Began planning settings
5. Narrowed down list of possible songs for suicide scene
6. Finished first draft of our script (I know. It's repeated. I'm that proud.)
7. Thought about costumes

The more progress we make, the more excited I am to see the final result, which in turn pushes me to want to work faster. Progress is happening, people, and I couldn't be happier.

The Beginning of the End with a Bang not a Whimper

When I showed my mom my blog, her first reaction was "Well, that's kind of cool. You're beginning the end." Confused? Me, too. I asked her what she meant and she responded with "This is the beginning of your final project. You're beginning the work for the end of the class." Well, huh. "Does that make you happy or sad?"

Well, mom, it's a little of both. I'm happy to be that much closer to the end of my senior year, but I've also really enjoyed this class. I've done pretty well, and I've grown as a creator and a consumer.

But for all that I've learned, that just makes this project more difficult. I want all the hard work I have put into this course to culminate into one magnificent production so I can say I went out with a bang instead of a whimper. And to do that, this will take a lot of work.

Lisa and I have a solid plot: The story of MC and her attempts to make the world a better place for LGBT+ people like herself by fighting bullying and ignorance. It's an inspirational drama. Pretty bangin', right?

But that's not all we need. We need killer shots/angles (not my strongest point), impactful sound (which I'd say is my weakest point), solid editing (I'll give this one to myself), and, to make it all work, a full understanding of our purpose and audience. Except we don't even know who our audience is yet. Which is kind of freaking me out.

So I guess I know what we need to do next:

1. Pick a target audience
2. Research that audience
3. Research dramas geared toward that audience
4. Begin writing script
5. Probably argue... uh, I mean, have some creative differences
6. Begin filming
7. Insert some more creative differences but throw in a lot of self-doubt
8. Edit
9. Agonize
10. Re-edit
11. Agonize more
12. Turn in the final product
13. Start all over again with the A-level project

Now that I've sent myself into a bit of a spiral, I also need to remember that the end is near, but we're still at the beginning. There are a lot of things we shouldn't be sure of yet. We just started this week. And y'know what? We'll figure it out tomorrow. Nobody will hear whimpering from me.

Finding Inspiration

As all creators know, the creative process is like both a search party and waiting to fall asleep: sometimes creators need to be active, going out and looking around other media in order to find it, and sometimes creators need to just lie down and wait for inspiration to find them. My partner, Lisa, and I have been hoping for a little bit of both.

With faith, trust, and pixie dust, we have been given inspiration and were able to determine pretty much the entire outline for the film. However, we hadn't been so lucky with our style of filming, the mood for the opening scenes, or how to present the information. Since the impetus for our main character's actions is another character's death, we know we will need to be sensitive, but do we want a "rip off the band-aid" kind of scene or a "slow and ambiguous" kind of scene?

So, like many people our age, we turned to the Internet.

The first example is a short film called My Name is Lisa. It has a "home video" feel, despite it's fictitious narrative, which Lisa and I both enjoy for at least part of our film. Except we don't want to use this style for the first part when the character kills herself because it doesn't fit the mood. 

The second media we have looked at is the first four minutes of the movie Harold and Maude. We like the understated feel of this scene, and I kind of like that you never see the person's face, but I'm not sure that's the best option.

But, hey, we're making progress.