" Keep On Trunkin"

So I know earlier in the process of creating the film opening I made a blog post about what font I wanted to do. However, my team members found some really cool font ideas recently and we changed our opinion. The fonts are all very similar but they are still slightly different and we wanted to choose one that we all agreed with and one that fits well with the time period and the overall vibe we want to give off in our film opening. These are some of the fonts we were planning on using:

All of our font options are very 70's and it was very hard for us to pick one since they are all pretty much similar and are all very appealing to the audience. The name of the font we decided to use is called "Keep on Trunkin". The process of choosing this font was a lot longer than I thought. We put a lot of thought into what font we chose as we explored hundreds of different websites and finally came across our ideal font.

We FINALLY found our title :))))

It Must be <3

Choosing a film title is a lot harder than  you think it is. We thought maybe we should leave that for last since it's just a name and we should base it around how our film turns out. Since we are almost done with our film project we thought it was time to finally come up with our title.

We found a playlist on Spotify called "1970s Hits" and we decided to look through the music they had and the names of the songs. We listened to a couple songs and finally came up with three that we thought could potentially be the ideal name for our film. The top three options were 

1. I Feel Love
2. It Must Be Love
3. Walk On the Wild Side

We talked in our group chat and decided that our best option was "It Must Be Love". We all did some research on the song itself and found out that this was very popular song in this time period. In 1971, this specific song, written and sung by Labi Siffre was a top hit in the UK.

Labi Siffre

Although it wasn't necessarily that popular in the United States, this song was used in many productions and is very well-known. For this reason, I am glad that this is our film title and that we chose a song title that fits well with the plot of our film and what we show in our film opening.

making arrangements

Our problems

Since my team and I now know that our film opening portfolio project is due on April 12 we wanted to make sure we have everything ready for when we film. We realized that when we asked our parents to film they were absolutely not okay with us getting together or leaving our houses at all during the this time because of the corona virus. In addition to this problem, we still need some time to think about how we are going to replace our school scene because that is a big portion of our film opening and we don't have any locker rooms to film at since all schools are closed at the moment.

Our solutions

My group and I talked about what we can do about our problems and this is what we decided on

Since we were planning to film at Irene's house anyway ( since she has the most aesthetically pleasing room and it fits the time period), she said she is able to film the clips with her sisters help. Sydney brought her the type writer and now she has all of the props to film the first half of our film opening. 

Now I know what you're thinking "what are Sydney and Valentina gonna do if Irene is gonna film the clips". We decided that me and Sydney are going to either split the                            two other jobs that have to be done:

1. Editing the clips and combining them 
2. Adding the filters we want
3. Title screen and credits

Orrrrr to do it together. Hopefully in the next week the corona situation get's better so we can all meet up and do everything together like we were originally planning.

I found a cool app

Boredom HIT

So over this really long boring spring break I haven't been able to go anywhere and I haven't seen the light of day in weeks. I don't think I've ever experienced anything this weird in my life it honestly feels like I'm living in a movie (no pun intended). ANYWAY, since I've been so bored i have been doing different random things I've always wanted to do but I never had time for everyday. Even though I go to sleep at 3 am and wake up at 1 pm I always find something to do in that time period. Yesterday, I woke up and I started looking through my Snapchat memories and I thought to myself, "ooo maybe I can combine a bunch of videos from my memories and make one big video with a cool song in the background" SO I DID and it came out really cool. On top of that, I found this app called Prequel that let's you import your own pictures or videos from your camera roll and you can put vintage filters and effects on them and make them look like they're from the 70's when really they're not (sadly). Besides making like 5 other videos with different background music, I also thought "hmm maybe we can import our film opening to this app to give it a more 70's feel without overdoing it. The app has a variety of filters to choose from and you can also make all the adjustments you want so I want to choose one that has a purpleish hue just to give it that vibe. We don't necessarily have to do this but when we have all of our video put together I think it would be cool if we see how it looks.

the new plan

I wish I could say I have a plan that i'm going to stick to no matter what but until the situation with the virus gets better I can't really say much or guarantee anything. However, the ideal plan is this:

While i'm stuck in my house doing nothing, all I can do and all I've really been doing is watching Netflix. Instead of watching just any Netflix movies i;m going to try to watch more coming of age ones to get more ideas on shots and costume design to see if we can perfect those things in our film opening as much as we can.

 

Booksmart

Apart from watching Netflix all day, I also want to see the previous AICE media AS level film openings to get more of an idea of what we want our film opening to look like and also to try to avoid making ours look like one that has already been made. Hopefully, by the middle of April we can already leave our houses to finally get together and film something. If we film the first part of our film, the bedroom scene, we will already have a lot done because that's the first half of our film and we can edit it while we wait for the school to reopen if it has not yet opened by that time to film the second half of our film opening. Ideally, we will be done with our entire film by the end of April.

at home ideas

Props!!

Typewriter

So for our film opening, props are a hugeeeee part because we need to use a lot of objects that represent the 70's and that are appropriate for our time period and for the vibe we want to set. As I said in my previous blogs, we want to use a typewriter so that Lana (the main character) can develop her character through the thoughts she types out in the beginning of our film opening. Lucky for us, Sydney (my group member) was passed down an actual typewriter from her great grandmother that will be perfect. Although it may not actually work, we can always edit and use certain camera angles to make it look as if the typewriter actually works. 

Sydney's typewriter

The Band Posters

Although this is only shown in short clips, band posters are an easy way for us to develop the setting of our film. Now I don't mean any band posters. Since this film takes place in the 70's not only do we want to use posters of bands from the 70's but also some that develop Lana's character. For example, bands that support the lgbtq community. Originally, we were planning on going thrifting and looking for some band posters. Our plan B  was to post on our snapchat or instagram stories and reach out to people to see if we could borrow some band posters for the day that we film. And our plan C was to order the band posters on amazon prime ( even though they were like $10 each) we were willing to do it since we also want some to decorate our rooms anyway. However, because of the whole virus situation happening, everything is closed and we will not be able to go through with any of these plans. Luckily our plan D came in and my team member Irene got bored enough in quarantine that she decided that she wanted to make the band posters herself. 

Band Posters 

I absolutely LOVE how they came out and they look like real band posters and they were a lot more affordable than the real ones so I am really happy about that and it's also really relieving since I was worried about a lot of other things like WHEN ARE WE GONNA FILM!!! But i'll talk about that very soon

This is another poster Irene made that was also included in the previous photo but I wanna elaborate on it a little more. I thought the idea behind it was very clever. She said she was watching the 70's show (i know ironic) and she noticed this image in one pf the episodes. Since the show does take place in the 70's she though we should include it in our film opening and maybe make Lana a smoker as well that way there is more to her. 

scene from that 70's show

corona crisis :/

News

Bad News

I always like to start off with the bad news that way we can end on a more positive note when I say the good(ish) new at the end. ANYWAYS, there's a huge virus going around called the Corona Virus and it's honestly really annoying. Apart from making me more antisocial than I already am, its making me feel like this project isn't going to be as good as I thought it would be. Every time I write on my blog and talk to my group about our film, I get really excited about it and the closer we got the more excited I got about filming and finally putting everything together. HOWEVER, since it's a deadly virus none of our parents are letting us leave our houses and therefore, we can't really do much. At this point in our process, we pretty much have everything ready to film. We have our camera, our costume design, our props, our place to film, our actors and actresses, etc. Apart from the project I hope everyone is safe and is washing their hands 637829 times a day ( or maybe i'm just extra).

Good News

Quarantine Queen.

I am really thankful for Mrs. Stocklosa (my aice media teacher) because she's one of the only teachers that have reached out to me and actually tried to help us with our project. I wasn't at home when she had the the video chat conference, but my group members updated me on some information that made me a lot less stressed. Apparently the due date for our project has been extended. Now we are going to have time to film and edit our film opening the way we wanted it to come our. The part I was most worried about was the locker seen. This was the second part of our film opening and we have to film it in the locker room in our school. However, since the school is closed at the moment due to the world crisis because of the deadly virus, we are gonna have to wait for it to reopen for us to film it. Lucky for us we are going to get the chance to do it if the school reopens before the due date. If not we will have to change the second half of our film opening very last minute.

The Title

Okay this is stressing me out. I feel like this is the most important part of the whole thing like it's THE TITLE.  The worst part is that every time I think of a good one, I look it up and it ALREADY EXISTS LIKE ?????????  I don't even know. Like either I have a very basic mind set and all of my title ideas are just BASIC or there's gonna be a movie or a show for every title I think of no matter what. I want something that has to do with an outcast. Since the main character feels like an outsider because of her sexuality I want to do something like that orrrrr something relating to the time period.  I want the main character to feel like she is going to be unaccepted if she comes out to the world because of the time period and I want the title to tell that story.

typewriter

our special prop

So as most of you already know, our film is taking place in the 70's. It took a while for us to finally figure our what we want to use in order to show Lana, the main character's thoughts and help give the viewer a more personal view. We are using asynchronous sound in our film opening. What I mean by this is that what you see matches what you hear. We are going to switch off from voice over ( or V.O) in our film openig. As she is talking about what she is doing when she wakes up in the morning, we are going to match what she is saying out loud to what she is writing in the typewrite. 

Where things get complicated

Now this is where things get kinda complicated. We know we want to use a typewriter as a way for her to document her feelings. The problem is that since we don't actually live in the 70s (even though it was probably better than 2020 in my opinion but THATS BESIDES THE POINT), we would need to find an actual typewriter. 

WE FOUND A LOOPHOLE

Obviously since this is a film and the audience can only see what we want them to see, I realized we can just buy a fake typewriter that people use as decorations from like home goods or something and use that instead. Not only is this gonna be a lot cheaper, but I also kind of want one for my room so it's convenient for me if I end up buying it anyway.

Update!!

One of my group members, Sydney said she might have a type writer decoration we can use so that makes things a lot easier.

Celtx

Since we're not gonna be using an actual typewriter but we still need to make it look like she is typing and we want to show the actual writing, I realized we need to find something that looks like typewriter writing.... CELTXXXXXX. Okay so if you don't already know what celtx is I'm here to tell you. Basically it's a website we use to make our scripts for films and I talked about it in my last blog. So last class I was doing part of the script while I was thinking about the typewriter and it made me realize that the writing on it looks a lot like typewriter writing so I think we should make a seperate "script" that's gfonna be the one we use as her typewriter writing.

typewriter font

The biggest struggle

I think the biggest thing we are going to struggle with is ngetting the camera at the perfect angle for there not to be a reflection on the screen. Since we want it to look like an actual typewriter we have to MAKE SURE that we do everything possible to show that it is not a screen.

script

celtxxxxx

Today we are giving our full attention to the script. The script is really important in any film opening and in any film overall. Although I'm used to improvising at the time that we film, for this project I want to plan ahead that way we can notice any mistakes in the storyline and make sure everything makes sense. The script is not a requirement for this project so the fact that my team and I are using celtx to plan our film opening shows how responsible we are so yeah i'm kinda proud. 

At this point in our process we are almost done getting everything planned for filming. I am expecting that we will need at least 2 days to film since we have two very different scenes in our film opening. In the storyboard and the script we have the bedroom scene first and then the school scene. However, we want to make sure we film the school scene first since corona virus is switching up all of our plans. If the school closes and we don't have the lockers to film with we will have to think of a whole other idea for the second part of our film opening. So far we haven't run into any major obstacles. I think since we only have school two full days next week it would be the perfect time for us to film the school scene at least.

The format might not be completely right but I do think it will get us to understand what we want it to look like.

Font Ideas?

70s Font Ideas

Now I know when you see these pictures you're gonna be like "wow those are such good 70s fonts" but I didn't find these myself I literally looked up cool 70s fonts and I actually found some really cool ones on the website I clicked.

Originally we wanted to make the title font the typical typewrite font since that plays a big role in the film opening. However, I feel like the type writer font is very boring and it doesn't really appeal to the target audience. Instead I want to use a more exciting font like the last two pictures I have. I'm not expecting to find that exact font but this is the ideal look.

target audience

Who we expect to watch our film

Target audience is a very important factor of a film. Since our film genre is coming of age, we have to figure out who is interested in coming of age movies. The reason for this is because we will use this information to determine our distribution methods and marketing techniques.

Typical Target Audiences for this genre

Teenagers:

• Around the age of 12-18
• Find these films entertaining because they are relatable since they are at the age where they are switching from kid to adult
• Protagonist in these films is usually a teenager = relatable
• The viewers are more likely to have a personal attachment to the main character since they will relate to them

More Specifically...Female Teenagers:

Since we are making our main character a teenage girl, we think our tareget audience should not only be teenagers in generally, but more specifically teenage girls. 

Personality:

Lana, the protagonist in our film is going to be an outsider. I don't mean like no one likes her and she as no friends. Lana is going to fit in just fine and she's gonna be a pretty average girl to the worl. But in reality, she's keeping something from everyone and this secret is going to make her feel like an outsider regardless. She thinks she is different than most people. 

Problems:

We know that teenage girls usually go through these struggles in middle school and high school. Fitting in is something that all teenagers go through and I feel like having this be the protagonists' main obstacle will attract are target audience the most.

let's talk about the characters

Since we are only supposed to do the film opening and not an entire film, we had to be careful what characters we want to show. We also have to be careful because we can't reveal too much in just the opening. 

Lana(main character):

Since this is our main character she has to be a female (cause it's about a girl coming out of the closet duh), and we want her to be very feminine. She likes to wear makeup and wear clothes that are in style. She cares a lot about how she looks and it may be cause she is a little insecure.

Jackie from "That 70's Show"

Chris & Amy

When we wanted to find names for Lana's parents, we were extra enough to search up popular girl and guy names in the 70's. These were two of the many names. In the film opening, Chris and Amy play a small role that helps in developing Lana's character. 

Harmony( the "best friend")

Harmony is Lana's best friend who she secretly has feelings for. Although it is not a secret to them two, it is a secret for society because in this time period being homosexual was not as common as it is today. Harmony also plays a big role in this film opening even though she is not the main character.

Billy (the "perfect" guy according to everyone) 

Billy is not that relevant to the overall film but he plays a big role in developing the plot of the film and assuring the audience that the film is what they think it is about. After the bedroom scene when Lana makes a face when her parents tell her to invite Harmony over, the audience already gets the idea because of the way Lana is acting along with the room decoration and other factors. Billy comes in the next scene when he wants to ask Lana to study with him but with some good angles and editing techniques, it is clear that Lana is too busy thinking about Harmony. Also, we want to have to extras in the back giggling and trying to get Billy;s attention to show that he is a guy that every girl wants but Lana is still not giving him attention.

Archie from "Riverdale"

THE OFFICIAL STORYBOARD (hopefully)

I hope that whoever's reading my blogs is a very patient human being. I have changed my storyboard approximately 53782 times. I am really hoping that this is the last blog post where I go on a mini rant about how indecisive my group is because I really like the ideas we came up with today and how we combined them on our storyboard. I apologize in advance for my questionable drawing skills. Sorry, I am not Picasso, but I hope you get the idea.

We might still adjust some things but overall I think we have a very doable film opening and we have a lot of cool mis en scene, editing, and camera shots throughout the whole film opening. I know a lot of the other students can't relate but I'm getting excited cause now I feel like we were able to gather our ideas better and I think if we go through with all of them it will come out looking really good. I think our biggest struggle is going to be finding a typewriter for the beginning. I think we can find one in home goods or goodwill but I'm going to make a whole blog post for just the typewrite so I will keep everyone updated.

glimpse into gay activism in the 70s

Why our time period is convenient

When we got into groups with other students, one of the students,Alyssa, did some research on gay activism in the 70's when I told her that my film takes place in that time period.She pointed out that gay activism was very relevant in this time and there were many protests. An article states that ,"The Stonewall riots, which occurred in New York City in June 1969, are generally considered to have ignited the modern gay rights movement in the United States (Canada, England and Wales had already discriminated homosexuality in 1967)". Another source about the Stonewall riots in New York states that, "Those years that followed, the decade of the 1970's, represent a remarkable period of transformation for gays and lesbians, particularly those living in America's coastal cities."

stonewall riots poster

Now that we are aware of these gay activism riots, we are even more excited for making it take place in the 70's. At first I was little worried about the time period because of the technology;  how we weren't able to use the vlog camera. Now that we figured out how we are going to document Lana's  thoughts with an alternative, and we know that this is the perfect time period for this film, I am so excited to film it.

group meeting

getting feedback

If you've been reading my blogs, you are probably already aware that my group and I are very indecisive and we've changed our mind on countless things. This is a good thing and a bad thing because we keep having to change our storyboard. Luckily, today we got the chance to meet with a member of one individual from each group and get feedback for our project or more ideas. I was really excited to do this because my group and I were running out of ideas and we wanted an outsiders point of view on our film opening. 

school scene idea

Before the group meeting today, my group and I changed our whole storyboard idea because we ran into problems with the whole vlogging idea. The students I met with today gave me good feedback on the school scene. They said that a school scene could give a lot of 70s vibes if we do it correctly. I also think we can use more of a variety of shots and show more technique(without overdoing it of course) if we end up doing the school scene. Also, we can still incorporate the band posters we did research on by displaying them in the girls locker like they did here:

bedroom scene idea

Diary:

When I told the people from the other groups that we ran into this problem because of the technology, they gave me some good ideas if we decide to still do the bedroom scene instead of the school one. They said that since I can't using a vlogging camera that instead I could write in a diary and have Lana document her thoughts through there since diaries were very "in" in the 70s. Now I know what you're thinking, "that's so boring no ones gonna read". However, we want to use a voice of effect while we get an extreme close up of the writing on the diary that way it is a lot easier for the viewers to understand what's going on.

Band Posters in background 

diary writing with V.O

Voice Recorder

Another idea is that instead of her vlogging, we could have her record herself on a voice recorder tape thing like the one used in 13 reasons why. This is the type of technology that was used in the 70s and I think it's an easy way for the viewer to understand what's happening, and we can also keep our storyboard ideas the same because it is similar to the vlog idea. 

voice tape recorder

Overall Feedback 

The students I met with today gave me some good feedback. I took notes on some of the pros and cons they said about my film opening so far.

Pros

• it is a girl that is coming out of the closet rather than a guy since it is something that hasn't really been seen before. 
•  very aesthetically pleasing with the pastels of the costume design and setting we create if we do it correctly

aesthetic

• Vintage effect throughout the film to set up the time this takes place in

vintage filter

Cons

• School Scene is going to be hard to do because their needs to be a lot of extras in the background in order for it to look like it takes place during school
• All actors need to fit the time period costume design
• We need a place that has lockers if we want it to look like the typical 70s high school scene.
• All actors need to be willing to stay after school for a little since we need to film in school.

My Personal Opinion:

I personally think that both of these ideas could work and I think we could include both of them in our film opening since each scene only has a small concept that won't take up a lot of time.