Day one production

 Today we began our production! I was really excited to begin making this story come alive, and see how everything is going to look on screen. We decided that we would start by filming the scenes from the security cameras, that we close the opening with. We started with these scenes because since we have other actors and components outside of me and my partner, we had to make the schedule work for everyone. We chose these scenes because the dog we are using from my partners friend was available, and because my partners dad who plays a big role in the opening was not available for filming this week. We filmed three different scenes from different cameras, and angles. All looking at the same walk that Olivia is taking with her dog, after the fight with Jonathan. 

(Location for day one of production, my house) 

The choice behind whose house the walk would be filmed at came down to the cameras, because my house has them and since no part of the inside of my house is seen in any of these clips, we can film the scenes inside the house at my partners house this coming week. Which is where we had originally decided we would film, and transform her bedroom into Olivia's. 

After school, at around 5:30PM my partner Anabella, and her friend Chloe came and brough Chloe's dog Ellie. Before they came over, I charged all the cameras and made sure they were working. I downloaded the app that connects to them on to my phone, and signed in so I could watch the footage. Originally, we where going to use the cameras that are already hooked on to certain trees and corners of my house, but then we ended up using one of the cameras I removed off the hook so we could fully manipulate and position it to fit the angles we where looking for. On top of that, we also recorded one scene from my doorbell camera. For that one, we didn't move it because its planted onto my front wall of the house, but the spot was great and the footage came out well. 

While recording, we did have a lot of issues with the app and cameras not loading. The wi-fi at my house has been really patchy all week, and because of that and the fact that we filmed outside, which struggles to connect to the wi-fi inside, the app wasn't working well. To fix this, I stayed inside, so I could use a stronger wi-fi, and I was calling them from the inside, so we could communicate about where to move the camera, and when to start the scene as I watched it through my app. 

We had a really successful day one of production, and beside the wi-fi trouble everything went smoothly and we got good shots without having to do many retakes. It would have been more ideal if we could film more this week, but with homework and sports it wasn't possible for us to coordinate more time to get more scenes, especially during the week with school. We are working on finishing props, so that this coming week we can work on the majority of the scenes and stay on our schedule. 

Representation

 Adding on to the mis-en-scene discussed last week, I have one final prop that is important to the representation of the mother in the narrative. Before I get into that, I realized that I haven't been using the character's names in my blogs. I am officially introducing you to Olivia the daughter, Rebecca the mother, and Jonothan the father. The names we chose don't have meaning, we just wanted simple names to keep it easy. In the scenes of the narrative the characters don't really refer to each other with names, they use dad and mom instead, so we didn't think too much on these names.

Going back to the prop, we decided to add this element to show the relationship between Olivia and Rebecca, since it's limited to the photos seen in the credits. The prop will be placed in Olivia's room, on either her desk or nightstand. It will be a small and antique photo frame with a photo of Rebecca in it. This frame is generational and has been in the family for a while. As Olivia was growing up, Rebecca would put things aside for her to eventually inherit. Olivia found this stash shortly after Rebecca passed away, the fame caught her eye. This would be shown to the audience in the film (not the opening) through a flashback of Olivia going through the things Rebecca left behind for her. 

To create this prop, we will take an antique photo frame, from either Goodwill or online like Amazon, and place a photo of Rebecca smiling in it. To get this photo we will use my partners mom, since my partner is the actor for Olvia it makes sense for her mother to play and pose as Rebecca. 

(Some vintage frame examples from Amazon)

As seen in the storyboard, the frame will be zoomed into after we see a mid-shot of Olivia crying in her mirror after fighting with her dad. The zoom in allows the time spent looking at the photo to increase, and for the feelings to sink into the viewer, as the plot of Rebeccas death is still being established. The sequence of the scenes shows that Olivia often looks to her mom's photo for strength, and recently with the arguments worsening between her and her father she has been longing for her mom more than ever. Without the frame, the mother-daughter connection Rebecca and Olivia had wouldn't be seen, as the frame allows us to travel back in time away from the current narrative and explore their relationship.

Audio

For the background of our scenes, it's really important that we have the right audio and sounds to go with the story. Through the website Pixabay, we found three audios we are going to use in our opening. The rest of the scenes will have foley sounds. 

The fist scene with an audio are the credits. This is what we open our film with, the audio is whimsical and upbeat. It perfectly illustrates the warm and happy photos of the family all together. To add this into our opening, when we edit our footage we will embed it into the credit scenes. 

Audio

The second scene with a chosen audio is when we show the tattoos on the killer and daughters wrists. This is a tense scene that really sets the curse into motion, and gets the story going. The audio builds up, and is loud. The build up makes it sound like something is being resolved, or pieced together. Which is exactly what the scene is doing, by going back and forth between the two wrists and giving viewers the realization that the main character does not yet have.

Audio

For the final audio we chose, we decided to pair it with the scene of the daughter walking the dog. This is what we end the opening with. The audio is really creepy, and it goes well with the fact that these final scenes are creepily seen through security cameras. It has an eerie tone, and it ends the opening with mystery.

Audio

For the rest of the scenes, we will be creating and incorporating our own foley sounds. Some examples of where we would add foley audio is when the father is driving, when the father is drinking, and when the daughter is in her room. An example of how we would make the foley of the father walking into the house is by making a recording of boots/heavy shoes stomping onto the ground. Another foley is for the alcohol the father is drinking, we can clank bottles and shake some liquid to make the foley. Just like the audios, the foleys will be added in when we are in our editing stage of the project. 

(Foley sound creation example)

The audios we found are all high quality, and last well over the amount of time we will use them for. They all help tell the story, and pair nicely with the scenes we chose. If we create strong and clear foleys, it will make the scenes smother and make them sound natural. This is all helpful for our editing process of the opening.

Storyboard

Besides the script, we created another form of planning for our opening. We drew and wrote a storyboard, with 15 scenes. The first scene is the longest, it's the 30 seconds of credits. For this scene we drew out an example photo of one of the six photos of the family that will play beneath the credits rolling. It will transition into a black screen that the title "Haunted Memories" will then appear on. 

The second and third scenes follow the father stumbling home after a long day of drinking and working. The fourth, fifth, and sixth scene depict the argument between the daughter and father. The dishes drawn in the sink are important, because that's what sets the father off and pushes his anger over the edge. We included some of the script into the drawing, to show that it will go in those scenes. 

The next two scenes are what happens after the daughter flees the argument, and goes to her room. The zoom-in into the picture frame of her mother is really significant for the consequential scene. Which is the killer on the cameras trying to see if his plan worked, and if he can move into phase two. Zooming in on the frame brings it more attention and gives it the time it deserves, for its significance, since the mother tragically passed away, and has left the family in shambles. 

The tenth and eleventh scenes focus on one of the main mis-en-scene elements, the tattoos. I talked about those on my blog this week, and we chose to show them through a super fast flash-back-and-forth motion. The intercut of the two perspectives will put everything in place with the curse, and keep the visual entertaining. 

We then see the daughter wanting to take her mind off of the argument, and go out for a walk with her dog. The last three scenes tie back to the killer being hacked into the cameras, watching her to make sure the curse has been successful so far. These three scenes will be different angles that the cameras are in, getting the footage of the daughter on a walk. The family has always had these cameras in their house, for security and safety purposes. On the bottom corner of the footage, the time stamps are seen of when the killer is watching the footage.

   (Storyboard)

With the planning of shot types and the consequential order of the scenes I feel prepared to begin filming next week and stay on track with the schedule I made, by following my storyboard. In past projects, I've learned that filming days can get stressful, but having a detailed and guided plan you made to follow is extremely helpful and allows things to run smoothly without letting you forget anything.

Tattoos

After reading my blog about my project summary last week, I think you probably have some further questions about the tattoos that I mentioned. These are a big part of the curse, and they are the main prop in my mise-en-scene. The fact that the daughter and killer both have tattoos is to show that they are related by the curse, almost like being interlinked. 

For the design of the tattoo, I wanted to choose something that would show the curse and it's power. I was initially thinking of doing the two sides of a broken heart, one side on each persons arm, but with my partner Anabella we came up with a better symbol. 

We chose to do a blue infinity sign. The blue is our way of representing that the daughter is feeling sad and blue, and the infinity sign shape shows that this curse is forever unless broken. This tattoo means that the curse is placing an eternity of sadness onto the daughter, unless again, it is broken. 

For the prop, I will buy the temporary tattoos on Amazon. I found these which have a great shade of dark blue, on Amazon. To apply these onto skin, you place them on the arm and go over them with a dampen cloth, and then remove the plastic. The pack comes with a lot of different sizes of the tattoo, so we can play around and see what works best and is seen best through the camera.

(The tattoos on Amazon)

(Approximate placement of tattoo, and size)

With the tattoo being on both characters arms, their bond is displayed and it shows their relationship. Although the two don't meet each other in the opening, the killer knows about the daughter. She doesn't know about him yet, but she finds out about him in the rest of the film's plot. This is why the tattoos are vital to the opening, they provide the context of the future relationship. 

Bottle prop

 A main element in the plot is the fathers alcoholic addiction. This leads him to his aggressive lash outs, and mood swings with his daughter. Besides using emotions and arguments to clearly show this, we brainstormed an idea to create a prop that will help further convey this element.

We obviously can't legally purchase or drink any alcoholic beverages, so we got creative with how we will make our own bottles. We are going to use glass bottles such as the ones from the San Pellegrino sparkling water company. We will remove their stickers, and glue on new stickers we printed out of popular alcoholic names. The bottles will be filled with water, the dark green glass they are made out of makes it really hard to see the substance inside so it doesn't call for us to fill them with anything special.

(Example of bottle)

We will have a handful of these bottles, and they will be in most of the scenes, especially the big argument scene in the kitchen with his daughter. You will see them kind of dispersed, on the counter, floor, table, or in the background. The more we have, the stronger of a message it sends that his addiction is severe and worsening. 

Although, the contribution of the prop bottles might not seem like a lot, they will actually help fill in all the details and clearly show what's happening. To be able to collect as many bottles as I can, I have asked my dad to set them aside for me. He loves to drink sparkling water every day, especially San Pellegrino, I also like drinking them. Overtime, I have been able to collect five so far, and I'm aiming for two or three more. 

One of the bottles will be in the background of the fight scene, and it will be shattered. To show the mess that the father is, and lives in, one of the bottles will be broken next to some other ones. Caps will be off some bottles, and not all of the bottles will be fully filled. This will show that he is actively drinking and abusing the alcohol. 

Overall, with the prop bottles I think we can carry out the narrative smoothly, and show that we have detailing in the film settings.

Character Development

 The character I chose to develop throughout my narrative, is the father. We see his behavior and relationship with his daughter change for the worst through flashbacks and memories. By developing his personality, viewers understand the gravity of the situation and the toll that his wife's passing has taken on him. 

A character development usually starts negative, and grows into something positive, but because of my plot having these aggressive and sad components, I am using the usual character development backwards. The character development will help me get the backstory across, and will bring viewers up to speed on the upcoming scenes. My character development will mostly take place in the first 45 seconds of my opening. 

I will have the credits with the photos of the old memories rolling, and in the photos the father will be included. This will highlight his old tone of happiness, and love. Which will contrast with the following scene, of his fight with his daughter, showing he has developed into a cold and distant father. 

The way the father will represent his happiness in the phots of the old memories is by being really close with the family, but especially with the mother. He will be smiling, and laughing in the pictures, all while looking intensely at his beloved wife and daughter. In some photos, he will look proud, and full of care for his family's lives. The father will also look healthy and in good shape in these photos.

On the other hand, to portray his character development in the following scenes the father will look tired, and unhappy. He will seem to be unhealthy, unstable, and miserable. Craving for alcohol, and full of tiredness. Unlike the photos, I also have the component of a script to present his character development. The script I talked about in my last blog evidently shows his changed feelings for his daughter, and his tone while speaking to her. His word choice is important, it sticks and stings. 

(Representation of the fathers development, the start is his high point, he is happy. He fluctuates and goes downhill when his wife passes. That is when his depression and addiction begin.)

By incorporating all of this, I can show the fathers character development physically, and emotionally. Without this development, the plot wouldn't be able to connect, and bring the curse upon the daughter. The fathers character development is the most important because although he is not the main character, he is the antagonist. His character takes and gives from the protagonist, which builds up the main character (daughter). 

Script

 To be able to convey the plot and backstory subtly, a script will help. I started making a short script that is around 45 seconds. A lot of the scenes will have heavy emotions, but not many words, therefore I kept it short for now. 

The cursing shows how infuriated the father really is and in turn, the weight of his words reflect on his daughters emotions. I tried to keep the swearing to a limit because then it becomes really vulgar, but when I tried to eliminate it all together it felt as something was missing. This is the script I will be using, minor changes might be made later on throughout the production process... 

Script: 

Father- “Omfg! You're so lazy, what have you even done all day? All you ever do is lay on the couch.  

Daughter- Calm down, I just got home from work- (pause) have u been drinking?? 

Father- NO BITCH! * 

Daughter- (crying)

Father- AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN THAT TATTOO REMOVED? I CAN'T BELIVE YOU WOULD EVER EVEN GET ONE IN THE FIRST PLACE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. (yelling) 

Daughter- Dad! I told u I didn’t get this- (cut off) 

Father- STOP LYING TO ME. (yelling)

Father- Enough.  

Daughter- (bawling)

-Scene ends, daughter runs to her room

-Time skip, killer has hacked into cameras

Killer- Lets see if I've done well...

*Hits daughter

The names of the characters are still being decided, but I'm going to keep them basic. The actions and pauses help accentuate the scenes and are really important. With the script down, I can start visualizing and storyboarding my scenes as a planification for the beginning of production next week.

Project idea

 After researching and brainstorming I have created a solid idea for my opening. I came up with the plot, and I think it outlines the genre of horror really well. The story follows a teenage girl, and her father. 

Background: Recently, a mother and her daughter got into a car crash. The daughter (protagonist) was able to survive, but unfortunately her mother passed away. This has left the daughters father in shambles, as he is now distraught and trying to cope. A killer who curses his victims when they are at their lowest, and filled with depression, is the antagonist of the plot. He is not known by any of the characters, and the only way to break his curse which constantly feeds on sadness, is to repair your heart and restore your happiness and love. When a victim is cursed, a small tattoo of an infinity sign with words intertwined, appears on their wrist. The killer has a matching one on his wrist as well. Once the curse is broken, the killer dies and the tattoo fades. 

Plot: As a result of his wife's tragic and sudden passing, the father has become abusive and distant with his daughter. He has developed some heavy drinking issues and has been staying out late. One night, he returns home from work, and drinking. He goes into the house and pours himself another drink, only to see the sink is full of dirty dishes. This is usually taken care of by his daughter, as she has been doing most of the housework ever since her mother passed away. He is immediately filled with rage, and memories, as this would have never happened if his wife was still around. She was always very precise and organized, she loved to clean, and he adored her. The daughter and father have an intense argument, which results in him hitting her. She is shattered, and runs up to her room to cry alone. She keeps picking and trying to peel at her skin, she hates the tattoo and she has no clue how she got it. To clear her head, she goes for a walk with her dog, outside. Her house has cameras on the front and backyard, for security purposes. The killer is currently hacking into said security system, and trying to watch her walk the dog. He wants to see if he can spot the tattoo on her wrist, and assure himself the curse successfully went through. This way, he can begin his torture, eternity of sadness on the victim, and eventually, kill her. 

(Tattoo, with different words inside of the infinity sign)

(Inspiration for car crash flashback scenes, photo from a drama class)

This is what I have come up with so far. I'm thinking of putting the credits at the beginning, over photos of old and nice memories of the daughter and her mother together. This would be followed by the title, "Haunted Memories". With some more adjustments, and additions I can finalize my project idea and stay on track with my schedule. This means next week I will be deciding on costumes, and working on creating the soundtrack!

Theory integration

After re-reading my media theories paper, I found a theory that could be important to integrate into my opening. The Binary opposition theory, from Levi Strauss, states that we experience life through the concept of opposites. Popular ones seen in movies are good vs. evil, and birth and death. By using this theory you have two opposing elements, working together to develop a narrative. 

(Levi Strauss)

(Basic representation of two opposite sides, working together)

An example of where the binary opposition theory is seen in media is through the films of The Hunger Games. With the theory, they represent the oppressed vs. the oppressors. The capitol is seen as the oppressors, and on the other hand the oppressed in this example would be the districts. They are oppressed because they have to send tributes to the games, and live in poverty. In the midst of all of this, we see a key element added to the theory. Katniss Everdeen, she is the hope and symbol of resistance throughout all of this cruelty. By using the theory and creating two sides that work together in the same world, but against each other makes the narrative interesting by having a clash.

(Katniss (oppressed) and President Snow (oppressor))

(Mocking Jay pin, Katniss's symbol for the revolution of freedom)

Another example of integration of the binary opposition theory are the films in the Harry Potter series, these use the good vs. evil opposition. By having two distinct sides in the argument, just like The Hunger Games, we see them fight and compete. There are multiple examples of the good and evil sides throughout the films, such as the pure-bloods vs the muggle-born, and the Slytherins vs. Gryffindors. The different houses hold different characters with distinct personalities, this adds depth to the narrative and builds up the opposing sides, which come together to form the story. The Gryffindors are known for being brave and daring, while the Slytherins are known for being cunning, and ambitious. 

(Dumbledore and the Gryffindor and Slytherin icons on his sides)

(Pure blood family in Harry Potter)

By incorporating the binary opposition theory into my opening, I can set the scene for the rest of the story and create conflict to keep things interesting. My (developing) plot has a building argument, with two opposing sides. I'm going to keep adding to this and finalize my narrative by the end of this third week. 

Sources:

-Click me!

-Click me!

-Click me!

Group meeting #1

 In our first group meeting we were able to talk to each other and share our ideas. The goal was to build off of each other, provide feedback, and help. We started off by sharing our genres that we chose, I noticed that the majority of the group chose thriller. We read each others blogs and talked about some positive and negative things we did to help us in our previous projects.

By sharing our plots and ideas, we helped each other fill in the gaps. For example, I was stuck between two title options for my opening, and I got my groups opinions. Most of them suggested I go with "Haunted Memories". This group activity helped me get feedback for my blogs and my ideas for the project so far. We all helped each other, Santina didn't know where to add her title in, and we collectively came up with a solution. We suggested she incorporates her title into the diary, which is her main prop. Instead of editing the title onto the screen, she can handwrite it in the notebook, she though this was really creative and liked the idea. 

We had uplifting and constructive conversations flowing, where everyone was always chiming in. We related some of our ideas, and shared our reasoning's behind decisions. 

(Group photo)

To help each other during the meeting, we shared a document and wrote critiques for each others plots and blogs. Under our names on the document we each shared our blog link, plot, setting, genre, title, and location. This is what we wrote...

https://gabeaicemedia.blogspot.com/ -Gabe 
Genre: Thriller 
Setting to film: Park, or any house 
Plot: Not sure about idea yet, has a couple options. Like relaxing at his house after a long day of work and he goes about his day. He then gets a phone call from a mysterious person, once he answers the voice says, “YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP! WAKE UP NOW BEFORE...” and then the man wakes up. 
No title 
Critique-Nicholas: Overall, solid idea, try to add more detail and make longer though. 
https://nickminds.blogspot.com/ 
My name: Nicholas 
Genre: Horror/Psychological Thriller 
As of Monday, my group does not know what we are going to do but we have some ideas and some films we are inspired by.  
Plot #1: One idea was a zombie apocalypse with 2 survivors in a forest running away from a monster on a dark, foggy night and they stop running after a couple seconds thinking they escaped. The 2 survivors start walking with the map they got of the park and then they suddenly hear the sound of something breaking but don’t think much of it. They suddenly hear a monster creeping up onto them and the scene would end with the zombie on top of the person about to eat them. 
Critique: -Gabe, minimal running. Running is boring, no one wants to see running. Terrible idea. 
Some films I am inspired by films like the shining, Halloween, and jaws as I really enjoyed these movies and would want to be created something like this 
https://superawesomekidcook.blogspot.com/2025/02/researchanalyzediscuss-three-film.html 
Name: Adil 
Genre: Thriller  
Plot: A godzilla inspired film, given by Stoklosa due to the fact that our group had no idea what to do. The setting takes place in a dark forest (Mark and park), story dynamic may be derived from Jurassic Park (T. Rex Escape scene) and how science will be humanities un-doing (Life finds a way) Take the new Jurassic world rebirth trailer for example, the new abnormality that is the main focus is a dinosaur called D-Rex/Deformed Rex. This can be a mirroring towards my film as my monster escapes from containment as scientists got too full of themselves and thought they had full control over the monster. (That is all the information as of now) 
https://santinamp.blogspot.com/ 
Santina Moreno 
Genre: Drama 
Title: Dear Diary; 
Plot: The main character is a girl who is very isolated and doesn't have a lot of friends, so when the last day of school ends, she goes directly home to find no one there either. During her car ride home, we want some non-diegetic music in the background and start the credit sequence until she goes into her room and closes the blinds, and the title appears. When the camera pans into the bed, the girl is going to be writing in her diary until her mom comes into her room and takes her out for some ice cream. 
https://anasblogrincon.blogspot.com/ 
 
Genre: Thriller & Coming of Age  
We don't have any title yet 
Setting: At the beach during the sunset  
Plot: A girl who just turned 21 and went to the beach to drink and celebrate her birthday with some people who she thought were her friends; (There's also a scene where she is in the car with her friends getting to the beach) she gets really drunk and one of her friends takes a picture of her lying on the sand and posts it online. The picture becomes viral, and her parents found out that she was in a bad state and no one was helping her.  
 
  Critique- Beatrice: I think your movie examples are good but maybe you should offer more analysis and responses with depth. This way you can learn more about how to use things and what to add into your opening. Maybe try to research more recently produced films, to have better examples.  
 
Beatrice: my blog  
Genre: Horror 
-Plot: A girl gets cursed and is watched by a killer, she is trying to break the curse. The curse feeds on depression and can be broken with happiness and love. She is depressed because her mom passed away a while ago and ever since her dad has been taking out his anger on her, making their house unsafe and their relationship weak. When she gets cursed, we see a tattoo appear on her, its matching with the killer. The title will be seen when she's looking at herself in the mirror, distraught, after being cursed. 
-Setting: house of the family  
-Title: Haunted memories (?)  
Critique- Santina: develop how she got the curse with a flashback 
Gabe: add more depth on the curse 
 

Overall, I found this activity helpful and I would love to do it again when we are deeper into the project, and need feedback and help on new tasks.