Costumes

    In order to record our introduction of our film, we had to decide what costumes we wanted for our characters Maya Miller and Lucy Walker. We decided to choose sport clothes since they are both going on a run and they have to dress appropriately to exercise. The color we chose was key for each of the outfits. 

Choosing outfits correctly for each character is important because it communicates a lot about the character tot he viewer without realizing it. Colors play a huge role in this because they can set the tone and mood of a character and an scene.

    The first outfit is Lucy Walker's costume. The color purple of the tank top also means mystery and fantasy. The color of the tank top symbolize how Lucy is a fictional friend in Maya's mind. Then we added shorts and white sneakers because it is what a typical teenager in high school would wear to exercise.

    Here is Maya Miller's outfit. We decided to use a grey top and leggings because it symbolize dullness and more of a negative connotation. Then the blue top can symbolize sadness. These colors will reflect later on what happens when Lucy is murdered since Maya will suffer a lot and enter in a depressive state.

 

Character development

 Hello blog! As you may know, our characters Maya Miller is the main character and Lucy Walker is her best friend and victim of the film. In order to create the plot correctly, we have to include character development in our film. Our group decided to focus on Maya's character development the most since she is the main character and our genre is a psychological thriller. In order to develop a psychological thriller correctly, we have to really create this distinction between Maya at the begging of the film and at the end after all the series of events happen.

We want Maya to be this closed, shy, simple girl who just enjoys being in company with her best friend. We wanted to make Lucy's personality very contrasting to Maya so that the viewer can understand their contrasting dynamic between their friendship. Lucy is very outgoing and talkative, she loves having adventures and trying new things. Lucy pushes Maya to try new things which is why they went jogging outside in the first place. We will also represent this in the friendship in dialogue and body language during our intro.

Maya will start changing the way she behaves once Lucy is killed. Maya will struggle with her mental health and start questioning reality. In the end, the viewer will learn that it was in al Maya's imagination and that she imagined having this friend "Lucy" in the first place. Maya created this friend in her mind to motivate her to do the things she was afraid to. Sadly because Maya suffers from having episodes of hallucinations, she suffered all this time trying to find how her friend was killed for nothing. And she never got to understand that her reality was completely false and she created it all in her mind.

Walker 9:37a.m.

Hello Blog! Today I am going to discuss one of our final decisions for our film, the title. Coming up with the title of our film was a long process.  Nothing seemed to be fitting for the story of our film. We had multiple ideas such as "What happened with Lucy?" or "The mystery of my best friend" but these options did not seem good enough to be our final option. 

We wanted our title to be a little more complicated like a puzzle, something you would not understand until you watch the film. This is why we decided to use the last name Walker as the title since it is the character's last name who died. Lucy Walker will die exactly at 9:37 a.m., we wanted to put this specific hour to show how much Maya obsesses over this murder that supposedly happened.

I think our title does a great job at making it so that only people who watch the movie will understand what it means. People who are interested in watching our film will wonder what that name means and why that hour is important. It adds mystery to the concept of our film and I feel it is unique which will set us apart from other films. And it also connects the characters and the plot altogether in the title which is what a successful title should include.

The creation of our script

    Hello blog! For the past few days, my group and I have been working on some details in order to get prepared to record. One of the most important details we had to prepare was our script. This script will help us to make the recording process easier because we can learn our lines before recording so that the whole process is easier and we can focus on the quality of the shots. 

We wanted to reflect the personalities of both characters through their dialogue. If you read the script created below, you can notice how Lucy tends to be more talkative while Maya just tends to respond. This difference of how much they talk reflect on their contrasting personalities. Additionally, we also purposely showed what the priorities of each character were when creating this script.  Lucy mentions se wants to go to a party while Maya says she can't because her priority is school. Lucy is also very insistent and tends to push Lucy to step our of her comfort zone. I think this script does a pretty good job showing how the dynamic between these two best friends is and how each of their personalities are. 

 

Reflection in the process

 When preparing for our film intro, we have to create a script, refer back to our storyboard and prepare what outfits we will wear. We came up with the plan to record in the morning since we could get shots of the sunrise and have enough time to record as long as we need to. We are thinking of using sporty outfits since our characters will be running together as exercise. We also plan to follow the storyboard but adapt it when we think it is necessary. 

So far the only problem we had has been trying to meet up with the current pandemic. Because we have to get together to record, we would expose ourselves without masks. This is why we are getting tested a day before and then get together to record safely. 

I am expecting us to be able to record all the scenes from the inside of the house and the sunrise by the end of our first meeting. Then for the second meeting, we will record all the scenes running and driving to the park. Hopefully, we will get to record everything in time of our schedule so that we have enough time to edit the best we can.

Editing Softwares

 Hello blog! Today I want to share some information I researched about editing softwares for our film opening. Editing is one of the processes that matters the most, the final product of the film completely depends on how well one can edit it.

Here are some things that I learned editing helps with:

-The pace of the movie is dictated by editing, longer shots create more suspense while short slots make it feel more fast-paced.

-Good editing helps to build shot continuity, a job editing does is to coherently have a flow of shot by shot. The cuts of the scenes have to be done properly in order to accomplish this.

-Editing helps amplify emotion, editing can help manipulate the audience's feelings between the scenes, such as a horror movie with a jump scare.

-Editing is a tool that helps the producers deliver information when they want to. Scenes can be rearranged in order to go back and forth to create a more dramatic effect.

Some recommended editing software are Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X and Avid Media Composer. A good editing platform will launch or project for success, we will try to edit our final product as much as possible in order to make it look great. Stay tuned for new updates!

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/guide-to-film-and-video-editing#what-is-film-editing

Fonts

 Hello blog! Today my group and I realized that we also have to take care of the small details when editing our film intro. So today I decided to research more about fonts to use in the title and credits of our film. Here are some commonly used fonts and their differences.

Helvetica and Trajan

According to WordPress, Helvetica and Trajan are the fonts typically used for movie posters. These fonts are easy to read and look aesthetically pleasing no matter what the theme of the movie is. Here is a few examples of the fonts:

These fonts and its variations can be seen in multiple posters and titles of films.

However, for title fonts it is better to have a unique font that makes an impact. Here are some fonts that 

I think for our film, the Bassanova font will be the ideal one. I think it goes really well eith the genre of thriller and suspense. 

https://judgebyitscover.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/what-the-font-most-common-typefaces-in-film-posters/ 

Changes in the plot and character development

 Hello blog! We decided to make some changes to our plot in order to make the plot more interesting for the audience. The person who is going to be murdered and cause Maya's insanity will now be her best friend Lucy. We decided to make the best friend the one that dies since it will affect her emotionally in a much deeper label as opposed to a stranger who she saw getting killed. In the film, Maya and Lucy will be running together in the early morning and Maya stops to tie her shoe. Lucy keeps running and as she gets farther away, Maya then hears a scream and realizes it comes from her friend. Maya will have to suffer the emotional pain of the loss of her friend and at the same time will have to realize that it was all in her head and that Lucy was a product of her imagination for all these years of friendship.

Character development:

Now that some changes have been established, here is a breakdown of how the main characters' personalities and life are going to be:

Maya Walker: Maya is a sixteen-year-old, pale, brown eyes, light brown hair girl who enjoys walking and running outside early in the morning. She is very kind and quiet. She really enjoys being around nature and does not have many friends. Her only best friend is Lucy who we later learn was a product of her imagination. Maya lives only with his father, she comes from a wealthy family but is lonely. She is an only daughter and her mother died from cancer when Maya was really young. She struggles with communicating with people and showing her feelings which is why she goes to therapy. Maya will start showing how bad her mental state is in therapy when her best friend dies, here would be signs suggesting to the audience there is something wrong with her.

Lucy Suco: Lucy is also sixteen years old, she is tan, brown and red hair, and brown eyes. Lucy is adventurous and curious. She always likes to wear black and does not say much about her home life. She never talked about her parents. Lucy and Maya started being friends because they both enjoys working out early in the morning. Because Maya and Lucy have very contrasting personalities they push each other to try different things.

Shots and Angles

 Hello blog! Today my group and I decided to focus more on the technical aspect of creating our film intro. We wrote down all the shots and angles we want to incorporate.

First, we want to do an establishing shot of the sun rising. It sets the time zone of early an early morning and the place as outdoors. Then we want to add multiple close-ups of Maya getting ready, tying her shoes, brushing her hair, and taking her keys. This helps to introduce the film and make it more interesting. Then we want to add extreme close-ups. 

Then to introduce Lucy we will have a long shot where Maya is picking her friend up.  And to introduce their conversation and dynamic as a friendship there will be a midshot of them talking in the car. To help the audience start feeling more connected to the characters we also want to add a point of view shot of Lucy and Maya in the car.

To establish the place they will be running, we will have an establishing shot of the Markham park where the girls will exercise. Then there will be a midshot of the girls walking and starting running. Then there will be some close-ups or midshots of their shoes when running. And a long shot that shows Lucy running while Maya ties her shoe which is a critical moment for the film. Then there would be a close up of Maya reacting suspicious in order to show how worried she is because of the scream she heard.

Storyboard

After clearing up some details for our film introduction, we finally have our storyboard. First we decided to show two establishing shots for the time and place. Then a combination of close ups and medium shots that show Maya, the main character, getting ready to pick her friend up. Then another establishing shot that introduce her best friend, Lucy. Then there are multiple two shots where the friends will be talking about an interesting conversation to keep the audience engaged. Then a combination of different shots  where they start getting ready to leave the car and start running. Then we have a close up of Maya tying her shoe and at this point is where Lucy leaves and Maya cannot find her. Maya then sees what she believes is her dead and this is the close up of her looking shocked.

Target Audience

Target Audience

Researching our future target audience for our film is very important in order to produce it. Our genre for the film is psychological thriller since it focuses on Maya, the main character, who is the only witness of the murder of her best friend. Maya starts developing an unstable and delusional behavior throughout the film because no one believes that her friend was killed.

The target audience for this sub-genre is usually aimed for older adults. The turns and twists for these movies usually are enjoyed by this age group since the younger audiences might think it is too much for them. The film can contain mental illnesses and disturbing character behavior which is why the movies are for 18 years old or older.