Choosing a Score

Like I mentioned in my last post, I have one more day of shooting to get through (and reshoots), but I wanted to get a head start in choosing the music for my opening (besides the Stevie Wonder song that I no longer need to use). Choosing the music will allow me to get a better feel for the opening's tone & mood and therefore I'll be able to choose shots that match or help enhance that. After searching for some time I found 2 scores that would fit the atmosphere I want to create. I requested a downloaded copy of the first one from the site killertracks.com to my instructor, the second one I found in the WeVideo library, a no-license-required library of music that paid users of WeVideo get access to. After listening to the music while seeing the videos I got some new ideas for different shots I wanted to try and incorporate into my piece (I'll take these new shots in the re shoots!). I've narrowed it down to two but I'm still deciding on which one would match the visuals better, I've included a sample of both audios bellow; as I move through the editing process I'll post samples of the visuals matched with the music so that I can get them peer-reviewed by my classmates and my friends who are also taking the course.

KILLER TRACKS AUDIO -> Click Here (First one in line)

WEVIDEO TRACK ->

Reshoots

Today I was re-shooting the 2017 researchers scenes; unlike the first time around, this shoot only took about 1 hour! Once my dad was in costume we got started right the way! The hardest part of today's shoot was putting the props back to the same position they were at on Wednesday, I studied the videos from the first day to make sure I put things right were they were on the original shoot. 

I was able to get more interesting shots today than I did on the first day! I got some nice pans and some engaging handheld shots that I'm confident will look great in the scene! I also practiced focusing with the camera on low lighting, so today's shots came out way sharper than the first! I don't want to fall behind any more than I already am so I plan on choosing the music today and stating to edit over the upcoming days. 

Uploading & Checking my videos

I still have one more day of shooting to go but I began the uploading process to WeVideo because I have A TON of videos for the platform to process and transfer to the cloud, which can be a lengthy process when doing it all at once. I also want to go through every video I took because I want to make sure that the shots aren't out of focus and that there's diversity in the type of angles and camera movements. After uploading them all to WeVideo I began to inspect them, doing so I found that I didn't like some of the shots, they felt odd and out of place. The biggest problem with most shots is the camera's focus because it was all filmed in a low light environment with many props on the table, the camera had a hard time focusing on one subject. This caused some of the videos to have random focus pulls and others to have a lense focusing interruption halfway through a shot. After reviewing all my videos I decided I wanted to re shoot day #3; not fully, but definitely parts of it. I've scheduled the re shoots for tomorrow, I'm lucky my dad is off work then!

Doing My Homework!

THIS IS THE RESPONSE I WAS WAITING FOR!! This is the continuation to my last post!

The explanation seemed far fetched so I decided to get it fact-checked. I contacted "THE SCIENCE & ENTERTAINMENT EXCHANGE" via their hotline, I left a voice mail explaining the curriculum, the project, it benefits, and my question; shortly after they called me back with an answer... In theory, this would make sense! They reached out to a psychology professor who had confirmed the need for a debriefing and the standard practice of recording the experiment via video & photographs. He mentioned some experiments like Milgram recorded the debriefing process, so the concept isn't far fetched. I was even given the "identical strangers" study in which Neubauer had Yale University lock away and seal the study records until 2065 as an example of a real-life study that comes very close to my film's experiment. The representative I talked to was super nice and excited for me being a young "filmmaker" who is "exposing audiences to important topics of conversation"! Since it was only a quick fact check and I communicated the purpose and nature of my project, I wasn't charged anything! I'm very thankful for this experience, so much that I gave a shout out to the science exchange on Twitter thanking them!

Shooting Day #3

Me directing in my garage

My third day of shooting!! (Second really if you don't count the Guava incident). Today I shot the main body of the opening, the 2017 researcher scene in which the experiment is getting reactivated and researcher is transferring paperwork from the 1964 file into the new 2017 folder. I convinced my dad to play the researcher, the hardest part was actually getting him to wear a tie! The shoot took nearly 3 1/2 hours; thankfully, my dad decided to buy a fan 2 days ago which was the only thing keeping us from getting a heat stroke!😅

The Set Up

Costume

For the costume, I looked to my previous research and took inspiration from my previous costume choice. This time, however, I decided the shirt should be blue, not white, and the tie should be green, not black. Although it may seem like a rather random decision, there are 2 main factors to it. 

Screen capture of one of the shots

1. Fashion: Fashion trends change, although the black and white color scheme in suits is still very widely used today, color is prominent in all fashion. A quick google search for "men suits" shows an array of color combinations for men's fashion. Considering that the researcher is living in 2017, it makes sense for him to dress like it.
2. Meaning: Unlike in 1964 or even 1945 (when the 1st experiment started), nothing is longer black and white. In the literal sense, our media is no longer presented to us in black and white like back then. Symbolically, we don't see the world in black and white; for example, we need to see deeper than the label real or fake, we need to judge the quality of the information presented to us, consider the source, and weight possible personal bias that might influence the way facts are presented to us. In a way, it's asking the audience to do the same thing when judging the events in the movie following the opening, it's saying "You should pay close attention, don't jump to black & white conclusions, and take a second to analyze what the movie is truly wanting to show you." ( A story about human unity told through one of human division). 

Lighting & The Set

A picture of the set built in my garage

I was shooting in the set I built and with the light set up I previously discussed. The only change in the setup was that I took the orange cover off of the LED light; therefore, removing the yellow hue. The new use of pure white light allowed me to capture certain shots better because the room was slightly brighter. 

You can read all about the lighting setup -> See Blog Post 

You can read my post about set building-> See Blog Post

You can watch my vlog about set building and the lighting setup HERE!

The Shoot

The Directing
I had a lot of fun at this shoot! I told my dad what to do with the props on the table and just tried different shots, angles, and camera movements! I had my storyboard on-site with me to help guide me through the shots I previously had planned but -like I mentioned in my storyboard post- I had enough room in my storyboard to get creative right there and then! I also had to make up the shots I didn't plan for since I removed the BBQ scene (thanks to my neighbors, the Guavas). I used a lot of pans, A LOT of focus pulls, over the shoulder shots, mid shots, etc. In some of the videos, you can't see my dad's head but it wasn't because I watching thing the headspace, I didn't want the audience too much information about the resraher, that includes his face.

 Me filming a handheld shot

The Acting

I can't complain, my dad did a good job! Unlike Enrique, my dad had no lines to read so language wasn't a barrier. I'm thankful that my dad had the time to help me with this project! There was truly no downside to working with him! Well... He HAS been bragging about being like Denzel Washington for the whole night so I'm not sure my last statement was 100% true 😂 (Either way, thank you dad!)

Plan B

An Ode to coffee:

"I can smell the delicious aroma of coffee coming from my cup, warm and welcoming like a fireplace burning vigorously in the winter. Oh, coffee, your smell draws me in, your color comforts me, your taste soothes me. If not for you, who would keep me awake in this time of great need?

Fun fact: I don't usually drink much coffee except for exam season! Well, that's gone out the window.
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Since the Guava family is no longer in the opening, I needed to figure out a Plan B that was still able to establish the experiment is being revived without showing it via the BBQ scene AND because of the extensive menacing ex[erimers scene, the opening's mood sets the film up as a thiller-drama hybried (which I'm actually ok with and I think it will work better with the opening's set up.) Cutting the last scene also means I lost 1 minute of running time, which I'll have to make up by extending the first scene (which will become the only scene in the opening.)

Lengthening the first scene also gives me more time to explain the experiment; therefore, intensifying the tension when the audience finds out the experiment is being reopened.  However, I quickly remembered that the experimenter's video has no sound! At this point, with shooting happening tomorrow, I had to get creative. I decided that the audio explaining the experiment would come from a recorder which was used to record the audio of the video and later was stored along with the video recording. This made sense storywise and technique wise; by using a real Sony recorder, it adds believability to the scene because it's a "hero" prop (a working on-screen prop used for up close-ups & extreme close-ups). Using the audio from the recorder also solved the impossible dubbing problem because the video and the recorder don't have to match up; in fact,  it would be very hard to get them to match up if it was a real-life scenario. I recorded the script on the Sony recorder and I'll play that as diegetic sound while filming tomorrow.

The only part that sucks about Plan B is that it causes the first inconsistency in my story (the only one I can notice so far). The recorder is digital which wouldn't have been available until the 70s. I wanted to use a tape recorder which was perfect because the "Compact Cassette" was released in the early 60s; however, I couldn't get the old tape recorder we have at home to work and the schedule is too tight like to delay shooting to buy one online. I just had to accept that there are certain things out of my control :(

Editing Clip #1 (1964 Experimnter)

Today was my first round of editing, seeing that I'll be shooting a huge chunk of the opening tomorrow, I need to have the old 1964 tapping of the experimenter ready to be shown in the background. For this clip, I'll be using what I shot on day one (with Enrique).  I separated my process into 3 stages: Upload, Visuals, Sound Mixing.

Upload

I shot the same short scene many times, some times by paragraph on the script, others getting through the entire scene. Because I had so many videos, it took a while to upload everything to the editing platform my class is using, WeVideo (click here to read a blog post about how much I LOVE WeVideo). Once the upload was complete, I was ready to get started on figuring out how in the world I would age the video to look 55 years old. 

Visuals 

The first thing I had to do was figure out the order of the script and arrange the videos I liked best to follow the script in chronological order in my timeline. This background video (a sort of "prop" video) has no camera movement, making it easier to choose which videos to use and how to arrange them. 

Matching the dialogue was one of the hardest parts of editing this clip because for every cut between paragraphs I had to go frame-by-frame to ensure the mouth picked up exactly in the position it was in the previous cut. After a lot of revisions, the dialogue flowed seamlessly through the scene. 

The hardest part of the editing process of this clip was aging it. The first thing that came to my mind was the color. Color first became widely used in the 60s; however, it wasn't until 1965 that it was announced that over half of all network prime-time programming would be broadcasted in color, this became known as the "color transition of 1965". This "color transition"  grew the color TV market, as they became more accessible to consumers. Yet after reviewing some taping from phycological experiments of the 60s and 70s, I concluded that color video wasn't widely used in the field. I decided to lower all the saturation of the video, increase the contrast a little and slightly lower the brightness. Which resulted in this look:

Screen Capture from WeVideo.com

 After I was satisfied with the look of the color, I encountered my next problem... The quality. The video camera I used to film it has a high quality that wouldn't be the standard in the 60s; especially not in a self-tapping. I decided to search for similar recording from the 60s and early 70s, including the tapings from the Standford Prison Experiment.

Harlow's Attachment Study

The Standford Prison Experiment 

At first, I didn't know how to approach it, but looking at old videos and broadcasts it became evident that a constant feature in all of them was either little scratches (caused by the film and dust) or static interruption if done by broadcasting. I first tried to add scratches but they weren't evident so I decided that I would fold the video with transmission static instead. In order to achieve this effect, I used public domain footage of white noise from which I removed the color black entirely leaving that space to be filled by the video (the same type of process used when working with a green screen). I then figured out that if the video had static noise then it should completely block the screen at times [I'll provide an explanation to the decision of using static noise in the context of the story at the end of the post]. In the end, I'm satisfied with the result! You can watch the clip at the end of the blog post!

Screen Capture from WeVideo

Sound Mixing

Since the video is a prop I decided to mute all it's sound, while this also got rid of the accent problem, it created a new one in which I have to figure out how I'll be able to set up the background story for the experiment revival in 2017. I'll be shooting the 2017 shots for the first time tomorrow So I have to think quickly! I want to find a solution which makes since technique wise but also story-wise. 

How the video fits into the narrative

This section is important to me because I have tried to pay very close attention to detail in the story and in the prop making. In order for transmission static to make since I decided that the debriefing was actually being transmitted over a secure connection to the university computer which was recording a copy of it by storing it on a computer-aided storage film which could not record audio and which could be securely stored in a controlled environment ( a video library). This was because filming the debriefing would mean that it would be stored via film, meaning it could be ruined by an unwanted change in temperature in the storage where the rest of the file was being kept. This means that the file was accessible in the University's film storage in the library, but to protected simply wouldn't have been logged in the system (like it's slot number doesn't exist). This also explains why -in my storyboard- the 2017 experimenter has the video recording paying in the background before he's given the Y7Y file, which taken directly from the storage to him (because the video wasn't with the file and he would have had access to it before he had aces to the file.) I WILL TALK MORE ABOUT THIS IN MY NEXT BLOG POST! I'm waiting for a response to something!

You can read more about the color transition of 1965 here:

https://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/color60s/

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/SwitchToColor 

Google "color transition of 1965"

Vlog #2

Here's my second vlog about set building & lighting! I'm quite surprised that I'm still finding the time to do these between now being behind on my calendar again, keeping up with at least some of my school work, and trying to also work on my extracurricular activities. Maybe this one might be the last one, but I hope it isn't!

Shooting Day #2

SURPRISE!!!! There is no day 2 of shooting!! Not today at least. Here's a quick story to help me explain the situation better:

I once I asked my mentor, "Becky, what's a lesson you think would've helped you if you knew early on?", she responded, "people suck". Don't take Becky as a negative person, that wasn't a negative comment, it's true, sometimes people just suck. I keep finding myself quoting Becky, there are times were "people suck" and today was one of them. (Also, just making sure I set the record straight, Becky is amazing! Her lessons are raw, she doesn't try to sugar coat or hide things, that makes her a great mentor!!)

Short Version:

My actors were a no-show and we only had one shot to get it right. Now I have to resort to Plan B. 

Long Version:

Today I was supposed to film the last scene of the opening sequence, the barbeque scene in which a white family and a black (African American) family can be seen having a good time as the camera slowly reveals a sign with the name of the community they're in, which has "Y7Y" on it, implying that the experiment had been activated. I asked my neighbors if they were willing to help me by being in the film opening, they agreed; I even waiting for Mr.Mang.. uh... let's call them the Guava family, yes, like the fruit... I even delayed the filming so that Mr.Guava could arrive on a trip and be in the film. Yesterday I spoke to the Guava's to make sure everything was fine with them and to confirm that we would be shooting today, they confirmed it all. Guess what? Nothing! They canceled and Mr.Guava (who, in theory, is a key part of that scene) leaves tomorrow morning. In conclusion, because I won't be able to record this scene I have to change part of my opening to fill the time that was meant to be used up for the scene. In addition, I no longer need to move forward on the licensing of the song, which sucks because I was really looking forward to going through the licensing process; I might just do it anyways to learn from the experience.

As you can probably imagine I'm frustrated and quite mad because I confirmed it twice!! But I also understand that plans change, it's just life. This little inconvenience is going to set me back which is exactly what I was trying to avoid, but I plan on changing gears quickly!

Quiet on set! Lights, Camera, Action!!

Me directing on my first day of shooting!

And we're off to the races! Today was my first-day recording! I shot the background video for the 1964 experiment which explains the experiment's purpose and conclusions! I met the actor who played the experimenter for the very first time today, 15 minutes didn't go by before he was in costume and in front of the camera. I want to separate today's shoot into categories so it's easier to breakdown and analyzes!

The Set Up

Costume

 

The night before the shoot I asked the "actor" to bring a white dress shirt which was my choice of the costume because he is, after all,  he is playing an old 1960s psychology professor at a highly respected -fictional- university (inspired by Standford University). I looked at pictures of Philip Zimbardo (the Standford University psychology professor famous for the Standford prison experiment) and Stanley Milgram (the Yale psychology professor famous for the Milgram Obedience Experiment) to draw a conclusion as to the most probable outfit the experimenter would be wearing. Similar to the experiment in my story, both of them conducted their experiment around the same time the debriefing video would have been filmed (Milgram 1963 [REALLY CLOSE] & Zimbardo 1971).  I then concluded that a white shirt and skinny black tie would be the best costume choice. 

Philip Zimbardo 

Set & Lighting

I knew I couldn't film the 1964 video in the same place the 2017 experiment is being planned so I scattered my house for the right place. I decided to shoot the video in front of a plain white wall, sure it might sound boring set design-wise, but not all sets can be academy award winners  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I realize now that I shouldn't pursue a career in comedy, I should probably stick to business. Seriously speaking however,  I strongly believe that if you're filming a secret debriefing video for a classified experiment that you know could potentially cause public chaos, you want to give as little clues to where you're recording it as possible; especially if it's a prestigious college whose reputation could be potentially damaged by information about the experiment leaking to the public. To achieve this set I recorded it all in a VERY tight shot which allowed me to block out the rest of my room. To light the set, I used a 3 point lighting set up which eliminated the shadows from the shot, regardless of where the "actor" moved. The backlight in the set up is warm white light unlike the fill and key light, I thought it wouldn't be very noticeable but  I remembered that after editing and lowering all saturation it won't be noticeable at all (I quickly edited the same picture of the "actor" reading the screen to test this).

Original Picture

Edited

The Script

As expected I did a few minor changes to the script minutes before we began shooting and most importantly I added directions for the actor so he knew when to look frustrated, serious, and (because at times he was reading from the printed script) when to look at the camera. 

The Shoot

The Directing

I decided to shoot it all separate, every paragraph in the script was a different video, all ranging from ~8 seconds to ~15. After getting every paragraph in the prologue separately, I filmed it all together as one about 3 times. In total, It's fair to say the shot took about 1 hour (because everything technical was set up before Enrique arrived). 

The Acting

I have to start this by saying that I truly appreciate Enrique coming out to do this, I had never met him before, he met my dad not long ago, and he volunteered to help me by acting as "Experimenter #1" who has the only lines in the entire 2-minute opening. I also have to mention that 2 of his kids graduated in media and/or cinematography and another one is studying acting in California so he came in knowing how much this type of project means to the director. I knew I wasn't going to have an award-winning actor on the other side of the camera, but I hoped they would be as convincing as possible. I know Enrique tried his very best, but it was too obvious that he was reading his lines because he kept squinting to do so. Near the end, however, his lines flowed out nicely! However, I had a bigger problem by then... In order to be authorized to run a classified experiment about racism in 1945, the experimenter would have had to be white ( Enrique is white, but English is his 3rd language, he has a very heavy accent, and the script is full of technical psychology vocab; therefore, you can't always understand what he's saying.) I think I could try and pass him as a German researcher; however, the experiment began in 1945 which is the end of WW2. At the time, a project of that magnitude and level of clearance wouldn't have been given to a German. Yes, I do think of those little details because my job is to tell a good story and this isn't a children's movie where plot holes can be left unfilled, the audience for this drama will analyze and draw conclusions of their own; I have to give them "2+2" not "2 and go figure it out." In conclusion, I don't want to use the audio; if it sounds off to me, the audience will pick up on it. I thought of reshooting but I have no time to waste and dubbing it to perfection would be near impossible. I'm going to sleep on it and try to find a creative solution tomorrow. 

PS: Tomorrow is day 2 of filming! I'm super excited!! 

Sneek Preview!

Now that I have the background, the lighting, and some of the props all set up and ready to begin filming soon, I thought I'd give it a test run using an iPhone while the camera is getting ready to shoot some scenes in another location tomorrow! Here's the rough long-take I took!

I'm still worried about the lighting, I fear is too dark. I'm gonna ask to have some of my classmates and friends taking AICE media to peer review it and give me feedback before I shoot the actual thing! (FOR BEST RESOLUTION, DO NOT EXPAND)

*Disclaimer: I had the "Stranger Things" theme song as the background music for personal use ONLY. This is NOT the song I'll use in my project nor have I gone through the licensing process for this score, it was being used in private and it's, therefore, fair use of the song. 

So, funny story...

Like I mentioned in my other post, there are two main features to the composition of my state's environment, transforming the location's back and the lighting. In this post, I want to focus on how I'm using lighting to help enhance the mysterious mood of my set as well as share a little mishap I had when setting things up.

My light set up:

I'm using 4 different types of lighting equipment in order to create the right atmosphere, as can be seen on the picture, two of the lights are set on the floor, while the other two are higher to better illuminate the props on the table. I crossed the garage lights because I will not be using it while shooting. I decided to place a diffuser on 2 lights: the one I'm borrowing (Top one on the right) and the study light I'm using to help illuminate the background I built ( I want to illuminate the background so that it can be distinguished from the table with the props & show the depth of the room); to diffuse this one I decided to place a white china paper on top of it. I also switched out the light my garage had (top left) for a smart light that can change color; I control this light via my iPad, granting me full control over it's color and color brightness. I figured the more control I have over the set, the better I'll be able to emerge the audience into the story. The colors light on the floor (bottom left) is there to reinforce the color from the smart light above.

Lastly, the light set up is meant to help reduce the number of possible shadows the camera can pick up. The faint shadow of me with the camera that's cast by the color light is contrasted by the warm white light given off by the other two lights. 

Using Color: 

The lighting is KEY because it will help establish the mood of the experiment through the movie; however, shooting at too much low lighting could make for terrible scene composition. For this set, I decided to mix warm white light with blue light; the contrasting color hues symbolizing contrast and balance (similar to the Y7Y easter egg and the nature of the experiment). My biggest challenge using color is that pure blue light is very dark which makes it difficult to shoot in, especially without having to boost the camera's ISO and ruin the detail with a grainy look. If when shooting I find that lighting is simply too dark I'll change the set up to one more closely resembling the one I plan on using to record the file cabinet (I included a reference picture below). 

So... Funny Story:

Boy, do I have a funny story about today! As I was playing around with my lighting set up to take some set pictures (like the one above) some lights began to flicker. I didn't pay much attention to it, I probably should have. I had used a series of sort extension cords to connect all the lights together, and since I'm spending so much time in there anyway, I decided to charge a couple of other equipment in the room including my phone, 2 cameras, the iPad, and a speaker for convenience. I'm a smart kid, I should have known better than to overload the circuit. You probably know where this is going... I blew a fuse (◉_◉)... Or so I thought, the garage lost power and my stomach dropped thinking "Did I blow a fuse? What is even a fuse? How in the world am I gonna tell my dad that I blew a fuse?!? Especially when I'm in charge of Christmas lights?!?! I'm supposed to know better than this!" Then I remembered my house doesn't have fuses at all!! It's a box of circuit breakers! (This is just proof that I need some sleep) I just reset the power! I learned my lesson though, I unplugged some stuff and moved them to my room, and quickly transferred everything to a big heavy duty extension cord and a power strip. THAT WAS CLOSE! This taught me I need to think of EVERYTHING when setting up a set, not only aesthetic and technique but technical too. 

Building A Set

Like my calendar says, I was set building today! My film opening has four different shooting locations, 3 of them I found through location scouting: The park where I'll shoot the BBQ scene, the class in which I'll record the file cabinet, and I the white wall in which I'll record the prop 1964 video. The fourth one I decided to build from scratch, in it I'll be recording the shots of the 2017 experiment revival. 

I decided to turn my garage into my set because there I'll have the privacy and space necessary to film. The scene I'll be shooting in my garage is set in a "classified location", this description gave me A LOT of lead way in creating a setting that will help create a sense of menacing mystery. Since the site is classified, the audience shouldn't be able to tell where it's located or what it truly is. To accomplish this, I covered 2 walls of my garage with plastic tablecloths which hid the garage environment. Covering 2 walls instead of just one will make it easier for me to frame the shots and make different camera movements without accidentally showing my garage.

I also put a table in the middle of the corner set, I'll place all the props on the table and have the researcher work on paperwork and crossing out classified information. My storyboard has a shot in front of the table (opposite to the seat of the researcher), in order to achieve that shot I'll simply rotate the table and seat in a way that I still use the same background, giving the illusion of a 360° set. In order to help me visualize the set and the logistics of filming around the table, I made this blueprint: 

 The planning stage for building my set.

In my next post, I'll dive deep into my set's lighting set up! 

I started a vlog

Today I started a vlog! I wanted to create another place to share my project and progress with others,  I found that a vlog would show another side of me (because I'm almost never in front of the camera on my own projects) and would help me effectively communicate with a different type of audience that might also be interested in hearing about this type of project. There's no way for me to make a vlog about everything I've done to today, but I can record commentary on certain aspects of the project I'll be working on in the very close future. I plan to make each vlog about 1 minute to 1:30 long and spend little time on editing so that it's manageable moving forward. The vlog is complementary to my blog because I won't be diving deep into things and may not discuss some at all! I hope to increase audience engagement in my blog by breaking the rules of storytelling, I plan to introduce a post or story and invite the vlog audience to finish it by reading my blog! In addition, hopefully, this will help future AICE media students to navigate their own projects by using a medium (video) which they can interact and relate more than reading my blog (I hope I'll be able to change their mentality from "I have to read that?" to "this video got me hooked and I HAVE to go read that!"). While recording this very short intro, however, I found that this was definitely going to be harder than I thought; so if I'm short of time soon, I'll have to discontinue the vlog 😅😬.

Script Writting

SCENE 01 [writting a script] 

Fade in: 

Int. My house - Day

In Weston FL, a 16-year-old student learns to write a script for his AICE media class portfolio project, a two minutes film opening.

Dissolve to: 

Int. Online Blog - Night

A student writes a blog post in the form of script.

LUIS, an AICE media student and big Disney fan in his teenage years begins to write the blog post. 

LUIS

As you can probably guess by the formatting of my blog post today, I wrote the script for the experimenter's clip that's shown during my opening (a separate original clip I had to make). I've never written a script before so I researched different script/screenplay templates to help guide me through writing one of my own. My script is short but it delivers information I want the audience to have to start off because that info is a part of the promise made in the film opening, one which carries over into the rest of the film.

 I decided to make the experimenter's seen a self-taping in 1964 about the experiment, sort of a debriefing about the findings, but it's unclear who was meant to receive the message. I used a lot of my knowledge from AICE Psychology to determine what would be necessary to include in a very short synopsis of the experiment, even if I implied things (like not obviously stating the Independent & dependent variable, rather describing the experiment's set up allowing the audience who is interested in knowing that specific detail to put two and two together.)  

It didn't take me too long to write the script and a few revisions, it was ready to be acted! For the experimenter, I need a white male probably in his 50s or 60s, my dad said he knew someone who fit the description and I texted this total stranger through my dad's phone to ask him to be in my film opening, it was certainly an interesting conversation; however, he agreed! I'm hoping he can pull it off, but I also know that not everyone is an actor, I'm just used to working with people that can act (which makes my life slightly easier. *COUGH* Shout out to my friend Jake *COUGH*). So, on Sunday I'll be finally filming the experimenter! I think I might do some trial shots before then though to adjust lighting and maybe even use some of those when editing the project later!

-THE END-

Director's copy Revisions

Screen capture of the script on Google Docs

Easter Eggs

I've been waiting to tell ya'll about this easter egg for a while! When I was coming up with my story I wanted to sneak "easter eggs" (non-obvious messages or tributes usually found in small details in many popular TV shows or movies). In order to craft the best easter eggs, I conducted some research into Pixar's use of easter eggs to connect ideas, themes, storylines, and even other franchises to their movies. I also researched some of the best easter eggs in movie history according to Time.com.

Pixar's Use of Easter Eggs:

When I want to learn about storytelling I turn to the masters, Disney has been leading the world of entrainment for a LONG TIME, since Mickey Mouse's premiere in 1928 to be exact! The company had always had an amazing eye for detail, best exemplified by the thousands of hidden mickeys hidden in plain sight throughout the company's media portfolio. Disney assets like Pixar are no exemption to the brilliant use of details & easter eggs hidden in their productions. In fact, Pixar movies have so many easter eggs that fans have been able to connect all movies to the teacher in what's called "The Pixar Theory". The youtube channel Super Carlin Brothers ran by influential long-time Disney fans and Pixar enthusiasts, Jonathan and Ben Carlin, has published many videos pointing out many unknown easter eggs and using them to create theories about Pixar storylines (some of which have become so popular that Pixar and/or the movies' director has had to publicly respond).

Although it's fun to make theories about a possible master plan Pixar had when creating every movie, making them all interconnect into one universe, the truth is easter eggs are a storytelling method that Pixar primarily uses for 3 things:

1) Paying homage

In many occasions, easter eggs are just a way to pay homage to something. For example, one of the directors for "Toy Story 3", Lee Unkrich, is a big fan of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"; according to The Insider, he even runs the "film's fan site", The Overlook Hotel. Being a director he got to make a lot of stylistic choices, he used the opportunity to subtly include a nod to the shinning in the form of Sid's carpet. Can you see it? 

Another famous homage included in nearly all Pixar movies is A113. John Lasseter explained that this actually is the number of the animation classroom at the California Institute of the Arts. For years animators included this as a way to immortalize the place in which they learned their craft and where many of them met
each other. Even now, A113 is a recurring easter egg in Pixar movies. 


2) Saving Time


In a scene from finding Dori, you can spot Riley from Disney • Pixar's "Inside Out" (Disney confirmed the appearance). This type of guest appearances are added primarily as a way to save time, animating is a very time-consuming process, creating a whole brand new character from scratch in order to use it for seconds of screen time takes time and it's an experience. Pixar creates great fan experience and saves production time by reusing characters molds, backgrounds, background objects, and even entire scenery. 

For example, The screen capture above is from the 1998 film "A bug's life", the one below is from "Monsters INC" which premiered 2001. 


3) Fandom

Although not every Pixar movie may be linked to each other, some certainly are. In a bonus-feature-style scene at the end of "Toy Story 2" you can see Flik from "A bug's life" (click on the hyperlink and forward to 2:59), he even has lines in the "blooper"! In the very short appearance, Flik thinks his filming the sequel to "A bug's life", creating comedic irony, and gets accidentally smacked as Buzz Lightyear cuts through some plants. Regardless of this scene being a "blooper" if fuels fandom! These easter eggs help channels like "The Theorizer" make theories about the "Pixarverse" and other youtube channels like "Seamus Gorman" continue gaining traction enough to get interviews with people such as director Brad Bird. 

Super Carlin Brothers crossover with Seamus Groman 

TIME Magazine "Best Easter Eggs":

Times magazine online wrote an article presenting that they consider the "best" easter eggs in movies. The article presented 10 Easter Eggs, 6 being from Disney or Pixar Movies (2 more being from other Disney assets). Most of the listed easter eggs are subtle character crossovers like R2D2 appearing as space debris in "both the 2009 Star Trek reboot as well as the 2013 sequel Star Trek Into Darkness." Others include the Pizza Planet Truck form Pixar appearing in almost every Pixar movie and Pacman in Tron. Some of the listed Easter Eggs surprised me, like the R2D2 one above because in today's highly sensitive world, IP is very well protected and arranging crossovers is a time consuming, length, and costly process. 

My very own Easter eggs! :

After presenting this research into easter eggs, I'm ready to reveal one of my own! The very name Y7Y given to the experiment in my film is an easter egg! The 7 is the key to unlocking its meaning! If you go to a keyboard you'll notice that the 7 falls on the same key that "&" does, so... replace 7 for & and you've got Y&Y! It's not very obvious at first but it stands for Ying & Yang, which's simple is black and white! Have you gotten it yet? Black and white like what the experiment's subjects were! It's hard to spot without me pointing it out, but it makes perfect sense that a top secret and highly unethical experiment would carry a code name. After making this one it was game on! I've been incorporating easter eggs into my production design as nods to many people, movies, and personal experiences! It's been a fun way to in a way to subtly incorporate a piece of me into my project. I say that because even if the story is my idea and I control everything the audience will see, this story isn't about me, it's about unity, logic, and it's about race... the human race. 

The 1964 "Y7Y" folder.

Updating My Calendar

I finally had time to sit down and redo my calendar, adapting it to my current progress,  so that I can be organized and productive moving forward. I used the same template I used on my first calendar, but this time I only included what the calendar looks like moving forward. I've included many shooting days because I want to have as much raw footage to play with when I'm editing, I also included a re-shoot day just in case I decide I need to fix certain technical aspects of the production that I can't fix in post. I'm planning to do final revisions at the end of the month, and begin my CCR the first week of April, which leaves seven days to complete that. 

It's All In The Details

Why are Disney parks so immersive in comparison to other theme parks? Well, besides their layout which helps the theming process, it was Walt's attention to details in the original Disneyland that set Disney parks apart from any other attraction in the world, there was simply nothing like it; I would argue, there still isn't. When designing Disney parks, the company's engineering department creates everything from the surrounding landscape, the background sound (both diagetic and non-diagetic), even the smells in the air are manipulated to create an incredibly immersive experience. Guest visiting Disney theme parks step onto another world, the same goes for audiences watching Disney or Disney Pixar movies. There are so many details in Disney Pixar movies that Jon Negroni made a theory as to how they all connect (the Pixar theory). The Walt Disney Company's attention to detail in all their projects is remarkable, they understand that details create a more immersive experience for audiences & guests, that uncanny attention to detail is something I want to incorporate into my opening film.

Today I created the props I will need to shoot my film opening, I made a list of all the possible things I would need, rolled my sleeves up, and got building. The first prop I did was a big community sign you can see in the last two frames of my storyboard, the sign is meant to help the researchers identify the community (for example, "Oakland Reserve: Y7Y"), it's meant to be subtle since the children aren't supposed to know the experiment is being conducted. For this sign, I used cardboard and spray painted it black and white. Because it has to be modern and somewhat contemporary, I decided to make the white marble-like to the best of my ability, following the trend of neighborhood signs made of rock. I didn't finish this specific prop because of the letters, I'm having trouble deciding how big and what font they should be, after all, it's the details that matter. I'm going to my local craft store during the week to pick the letters.

The second prop I created is the experiment papers, which will be both in the Y7Y file inside the cabinet and spread out in the table as experiment's cross out classified information late in the sequence. I want to film these papers up close, so I paid close attention to what I decided to include in them. As much as I would love to type out the entire study so that I had more freedom in my shots, I simply don't have time, so I visited the American Psychiatric Association and looked for a study on race (at least then the content would be somewhat relevant). I found a study titled "Breaking the Cycle of Mistrust: Wise Interventions to Provide critical feedback Across the Racial Divide" which the APA has listed as a sample template for psychological studies. I used the study as a template for my prop study. However, in order to avoid copyright infringement, I changed all the text in my prop study to dummy text which I generated from https://www.lipsum.com/; the paragraphs which are actual English, I retyped to fit the context of the film. 

These are the rest of the props I worked on and a short synopsis of how I created them:

3) Stanphord University Logo: I used canva.com to get a basic idea of what the logo could look like. After I decided the logo layout I liked, I designed in Google Drive by using Google Drawings; I got the torch from a free stock clipart site (free of copyright) and exported the olive branches from a previous logo I had designed. I later downloaded it in a transparent background. 

4)Y7Y folder: I wanted the folder to have Stanphord University's logo on it so I tried MANY methods to get it on the folder's front. After forcing the folder in my printer, I quickly found that my printer does not print on cardstock folders, the image was automatically cut in half and rotated. Then I tried printing the logo on a normal paper and using alcohol and heat to transfer the ink to the folder, I found out that doesn't work too. Lastly, I printed the logo on wax paper and tried to transfer it over to the cardstock... To little surprise, it did not work! I then decided to just use "Y7Y" on the cover and give the folder an old look. To achieve that look I smeared dry mud-clay onto the folder, adding some vaseline in places to enhance the dirty look. I imagine that after being locked for years on a dusting cabinet in an old basement the folder would look pretty dirty and dusty, therefore I also lightly coated it with baby powder so that it looks dusty when it's taken out. 

5) Photo's from the first experiment: This prop is a work in progress! I have to get many shots that would have been taken from 1945-1965. I began to shoot some generic photos of signs displaying "Y7Y" and then edited them in photoshop to appear old and grainy.

6) Experimenter Notes: For this, I used notepaper and hand-wrote notes on them. I wrote about the first experiment'd beginning, middle, and the experimenter's thoughts on it. I used VERY butchered cursive because I imagined that's what an educated professor at Stanphord would write like. I crumbled the paper and then pressed in a book to help make it look like it was perhaps thought of as having little value but rather needed to be in the file. 

Me getting ready to spray paint the community sign!