Acting

    As I stated in my last blog post I will now be talking about acting.I researched some things that I think will help me be comfortable on camera and portray my character well. One of the tips is to relax and just take a deep breath. I read that It helps a lot of people to tense up their entire body and keep it that way for a few seconds. Then, just relax all your muscles. "Box breathing" is also Another method you can use. You Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, and then breathe out for 4 seconds. The overall effect will calm you down.
    Another thing I can work on while on camera is to think about the little things my character would do such as picking at his finger nails or tapping his foot to show that he is nervous to be in public. Another thing I need to do when playing Daniel is to talk like him. Even if he doesn't have an accent you still need to consider their age, social status, beliefs, ect.
    Two of my other group members Felipe and Agustina also both have experience with acting so they can always give me some pointers too while we are filming. Acting will be a key role in establishing the tone and genre right from the start.
"How to Act." (with Pictures). Web. 02 Apr. 2016.

Lighting Research!

  I'm starting to research popular conventions throughout mystery movies. Suspense throughout the movie is often maintained as an important plot element. This can be done through the use of the soundtrack, camera angles, heavy shadows, and surprising plot twists. Alfred Hitchcock used all of these techniques, but would sometimes allow the audience in on a pending threat then draw out the moment for dramatic effect. 

 You can get these heavy shadows by using low key lighting to create a somewhat sinister look. Felipe just told me that if we film at his dads office we can use professional lights which would help us a lot in our production. For the scene in the forest we are going to use more natural lighting either from the moon or we can use high key lightning to create what looks like natural light for our film.

"Lighting Used in Thriller/Mystery Films." Prezi.com. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

 "Blog." Low Key Lighting. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. 

I am the chosen one

    Today our group discussed what we would like our main character to look like. We decided that we wanted the kid to look like a young Jason Bateman. Jokingly I stated that it should be me because people have told me i look like him in the past. To my surprise my fellow group members were fine with the idea. 

     We decided that I would just be how I normally am but just dressed in dark clothes to try to set the mood. Our main character Daniel will be very distant from everyone and somewhat of a loner. Obviously, with his mental condition it isn't the easiest thing for him to make friends. Daniel doesn't know what his issue is yet and that's why he is at the doctors office. Daniel has flashes of memories but he can't seem to place them. I think this character will be pretty easy for me to portray and I'm excited to be the main subject.

Locations

   Location will be a crucial aspect when it comes to the production of our film opening. Our setting will help set the tone of our film right off the bat.
 
   For the opening scene in the doctors office I think it should be very well lit in the beginning but once he falls asleep and wakes back up it should be very dark and scary. Our group thought that we should film this scene in our school nurses office because it is the most reasonable and convenient location.
 
 
The other main location we decided to use is Markham park for the forest scene the second time the main character wakes up. I've been all throughout the park and can already think of so many creepy areas we can film this scene.
 
We are very confident that these locations will get the job done for our production because of how accessible they are to us and they will help set the tone for our film.

Sound check 1, 2

One other thing my group and I haven't really discussed is the sound we will be using throughout our scenes. Given that our character has social problems he probably won't be talking to other characters and therefor we will be using a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.
    Diegetic sound is sound clearly coming from the narrative world. Examples of this are dialogue, music in a car, or footsteps. Non-diegetic sounds are sounds not visible in the narrative world, which means that the character on the screen does not hear or does not make the noises the audience is hearing such as music to help dramatize the scene.
     Another thing our group thought would be cool to use is an internal  monologue so we still have some sort of dialogue but is just in his head. While this may be an interesting idea it may not seem very natural and either way we will be including lots of diegetic sounds.

   To create an interesting film for your audience to thoroughly enjoy, one must  choose specific camera angles and transitions between these angles that help best tell the story. I feel that how one tells a story is infinitely more important than what that actual story is. Although it's the overall story that makes a story good it is the directors way of showing the information that makes the film great.

   Although we've chosen a variety of angles in our storyboard we've constructed, the point of view angle is clearly something we would like to incorporate in this film. The point of view angle is personal and intimate and allows to viewer to immerse themselves in the film. We'd like a point of view angle to be the opening shot, with a black vignette symbolizing blinking. This will immediately put the viewer in the head of the character and It also establishes the location of a waiting room.

      Transitions between the waiting room and the hallucinations in the forest and other settings are also very important. We would like to be creative in these cuts and maybe even cut from his eye in the waiting room to his eye in the forest or something in the shape of his eye like in the bathtub scene in the movie "Psycho"  starting at the 2:50 mark. 

 Newcarscent7. "The Famous Shower Scene From "Psycho"" YouTube. YouTube, 2009. Web. 03 Apr. 2016. 

Pod Meeting

Yesterday our class met in the pods at the Media Center with other classmates to discuss the progress of our projects. It was very helpful to brainstorm with other people I haven't talked to yet and although we are kind of changing the direction of our project I think it will come out very well. 

We decided to change our idea to a psychological thriller. Our main character gets diagnosed with PTSD and has been having paranoia since his parents death. He suffers from hallucinations and flashbacks so the viewer never really knows if what he's experiencing is real or not. We decided to start off the film with a pov shot of him in a waiting room of a new therapist office, trying anything to help his condition feeling that everything is hopeless and nothing will ever work. He wakes up and his name is being called by the therapist and thats when he starts having severe hallucinations. The viewer isn't sure what exactly is wrong with him but they know something is up. 

I think this idea could be very good and we will obviously continue to work with it. This will allow us to work with different techniques to have a "trippy" effect and I believe it will come out very well.

Excited To Be Back

3/4ths of my group has just arrived home from Atlanta. We are all excited to get back to our lone group member at school and finally get this project rolling. We understand we are a little behind but we are willing to work hard to catch up and don't think it'll be a problem.

Inspiration In Atlanta

I haven't been in school all week to work on the project because I am out of town for a television production/film convention in Atlanta. While in Atlanta i got the pleasure of watching many student made videos and one in particular I saw today stood out for this project. One of the contests you can compete in is Movie Trailer and the one I saw was for a mystery movie. The shots that they used to show suspense and mystery gave me and my other partners there with me great ideas for shots and how to introduce our characters.

Day 1 Final Project

My group and I have decided to do a mystery film opening. We are all really excited about this because we feel it will be different from all the others. I have been looking at examples of mystery shows and movies such as Sherlock, Clue and And Then There Were None. Im excited to use different elements from these examples in our own production.