Cambridge Project Blog: production process

we're being productive?

Today was honestly very productive. After seeing some inspiration in class, I got a lot of good ideas for shots and for the storyline of our film overall. At this point of our process, we have already gathered enough information to at least come up with our storyline and what we want to include in our storyboard. When my team and I got together, we realized that we need at least a week (this week) to find our props. The reason for this is because we realized that we have to create context through a variety of shots using different props and mis en scene elements to show in what period of time our film takes place. For example, we wanted to create a scene where there is a news broadcast of a news reporter talking about how "kids nowadays think it's okay to be with the same sex when it is not". This could've been a good way to foreshadow kind of what the movie is about. However, we ran into a problem when we realized the technology we have today isn't the same as the one they had in the 70s. Unless we find an old tv where we can put green paper on the screen in order to use it as a greenscreen and project our fake news, then we are gonna use our backup plan. In this part of the production process, we are planning carefully to avoid any obstacles we may face in the future. We want to make sure we know who will play Lana, the main character, and if we are using someone who is not in our group, we have to make sure they are available on the days we want to film or else we will have to adjust our schedule.Our self assigned homework for this week is to look for any props we can possibly use in our film opening such as tapes, record players, band posters from some 70s bands, or any clothing pieces that will match the same vibe. Today, we also did our ideal storyboard. The reason I say "ideal" is because it's too good to be true and we are probably gonna end up improvising on some parts since there is a good chnace that we won't find all of the things we need to film. If anything, we plan on going to goodwill to look for any potential props for our film opening.

Storyboard:

I want to briefly tell you guys what we have for our storyboard so far. We want to start off with a VHS looking screen of an old camera while we show the credits(we still have to decide on a font).

Credit Screen

Then we want it to transition to the camera POV of Lana vlogging about her struggles on the standard 8mm camera( one they used in the 70s).

(not this exact format)

Then we want to have an over-the-shoulder shot of her mom as she walks into the room with her dad and a focus pull to show Lana's reaction.

over the shoulder example

To show an even closer reaction to her parents walking in on her talking about her problem, we want another POV medium shot from the camera of Lana's face.

medium shot example

After, we want an over the shoulder long shot of her parents, Chris and Amy (two popular 70s names), telling Lana to invite Harmony to go to dinner with them since that is her "bestfriend".