Update for Second Half

 The second half of the film is the one where we open up to my house. Instead of going through my house and creating difficult dialogue that is unnecessary, I'm going to do the same as I open up to the house with the short cuts and sense of things around the house developing the ambiance but the only change is instead of Luci and his friend going through the house we get a shot of the window of his room.

 

My main concern with this project is I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. I want to develop a meaningful film opening while at the same time able to produce a good piece of media. The image above shows a really basic idea of how the transition is going to function. After we get the background of what happened to Jason we get a slow-up tilt of the forest with a scream in the background. The tilt goes up to the sky which is when the film will fade out to show "THE HIKE" along with other credits.

This will continue until the third cut which is the sky above the house where it'll say "10 years later.."

In the image above is the transition to inside the house. The Crazy board (CB) is what is right in front of the camera. Dead center. The camera movement in this section is just a reverse zoom so that way is slowly exposing Luci's organized room while still developing his crazy messed up head. after that, it continues to zoom out to an over-the-shoulder shot of both the friend on Luci's bed and how he asked Ryan if he's crazy and he answers a little bit. 

The next scene and final scene is where we develop a bit of dialogue between the characters and Ryan asks "what is all this? I thought we were coming to do a study for bio." The rest of the film is just dialogue and over-the-shoulder shots. Sadly because it's just us two we can't include any other actor who can help us with the project unless my 68-year-old grandma wants to help but she doesn't know how to use tech nor speak English for the film.

So once I film the second half tomorrow ill make a blog post about me analyzing the clips I decided on rising for the film!

CRAZY BOARD COMPLETE AND NEW APPROCH

 

It is nearly complete

This crazy board project wouldn't have been possible if I didn't skip my trip to Colombia but I'm honestly glad I did because this was enjoyable to make and once I finished creating the crazy board I felt so good to have accomplished this small project.

At the center, all the way at the top are the essential questions that drive the whole crazy board. What and Why?

To determine what I used an image I found online of a free scary figure in the woods. I used this image as a Twitter sighting of the creature that murdered Jason. Because it is a mysterious creature in the woods we have little information because from the images we see of the creature only attacks at night but recently Luci found out that it can also attack during the day which makes things scarier in the film. 

Now connecting that idea of what the potential thing they're fighting against they also have to know the location of where it lives. The images show the wooded are from a safe location (Top left).

There are also a few screen shots of people complaining about the police and how they have yet to get to the bottom of the missing people who go into the woods. They also complain about how they remain missing people after their remains are found within the following days.

One of the last aspects of the crazy board is the missing person report and the police report and how Luci broke them down after he stole the real police report off of the BSO database.

Now, what is the point of the red tape? It adds stress and just a mess to the board yet how he is still able to connect everything to everything showing his determination to find the WHY to the mysterious creatures killing and why the police are hiding this.

Now with this done I can complete the film opening tomorrow then soon edit and complete my CCR.

Mz signing off ✌ out!

Big upsets

 This has been the biggest challenge so far and I'm not proud of how I'm handling it.

I've told myself many times that I would do it, I would get it done, I would get ahead, yet I always find myself not getting anywhere.

I arrived home yesterday intending to finish m project as soon as I can but with all this free time and in the middle of spring break I find it difficult to bang out a blog post or even start the second half of my project. It doesn't help that I have a tournament this weekend either.

I know I sound pathetic right now and I don't want anyone to pity me because this is no one's fault but mine. Letting temptations like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Netflix, youtube, and going to play soccer get the best of me rather than taking on my responsibilities head-on.

I have no choice but to Film the there half of my film tomorrow even if it kills me because I know the longer I wait, the worse it gets.

So for my plan tomorrow I'm busy in the morning which takes up my whole morning and then I have work till 5. I'll have to get my stuff together and get ready and organized to print everything at CVS and get my board ready that's my plan. 

From previous experiences, it's difficult to just jump the ball and try to achieve one HUGE goal quickly so ill take steps. Tomorrow ill complete the crazy board no matter what! Ill complete all aspects of it from the pictures to the strategic placement of thumbtacks, rope, and pictures.

Because I scrapped the vlog intro I can open up my crazy board to a few different ideas or designs. As the evidence will have to most likely develop a page with random words and sentences to make it seem meaningful full or the document to be filled with police information. My plan to accomplish that would be to use a Jane Doe missing person document then edit it a bit. Other pieces of evidence will be straight from the video (The setting) and a picture of the Woods or "Its" home.

That's my plan for tomorrow along with one more thing. Finding Actors who can help me.

Here's a little bit of background. My family decided to send me to texas a bit before spring break because I told them that I have a lot of commitments that I can't slack on. I told them I would still like to enjoy break so I was fortunate enough to be able to go even if it was for a little bit of time. On the 25 or tomorrow, my family leaves for Colombia until April 9th or 10th, and being in another country doesn't help at all with my education because I decided of my own free will to go back to school. After all, online wasn't working out for me. I enjoy learning it's just online school is like I'm there but at the same time, I'm not. So because I'm alone starting tomorrow and because I already wasted today and it's too dark out to film ill have to grow up and put on my big boy pants and do some adulting. 

I'll finish my Crazy board and find actors no matter what even if I have to use little kids or the elderly I will resolve!

Mz signing off ✌ out

Video in the making!

After film day I was able to use iMovie to put all the film into the application then proceeded to edit the film. I asked my cousin for a laptop to be able to upload the film but they didn't have a computer with enough space or storage to download the reliable one I have at home. Luckily we live in the age of technology and I can still use my phone for everything.

After careful examination of the film, I had to make sure that it was all good-looking enough to develop the film that way I don't have to retake any shots because that would be problematic.

Using iMovie was pretty easy to use and function with. I just had to select the correct pieces of video or film. Just click upload. The only problem was using transitions and having to crop the videos to make them fit into the frame and all the shots to be able to be centered and not off-center.

For example, the first video or clip in the film when I entered it into iMovie I had to go back to photos because it wasn't centered or the composition in the video is off. It's near the bottom and not the middle of the screen. I need the viewers to just look straight into the film and see the puddle that'll catch their eyes. So I had to go back to photos, drop the image, delete it out of iMovie, then reupload it. I have to watch the whole film again to make sure all the composition is correct and that the shots do look correct. So far I have 30 seconds of film and tomorrow I have to go back to the film site to get the pictures I need for the crazy board because I'm going to d the rest in Florida!

This is MZ signing off ✌ out

Story board update again

 With the new ideas of what to do, I had to plan it out of course so it doesn't look as if it were last minute. Once I arrived at my cousin's house and the first day I just took a break from school because I had just busted my ass trying to earn this trip with my good grades. 

The next day I went out to where my cousin took all the pictures and showed me where the forest paths were. We found a location where kids used to hang out inside the woods and decided that that would be the supernatural monsters living quarters or its den. We found a rock to sit on and then I took out a pencil and a notebook and got to sketching what I plan to do. 

 

I decided to start with a puddle scene where it's calm then we see Luci's father running through the puddle to get the viewers right into the action. 

Then there would be a cut to where Luci's father is running through the woods and looking back constantly developing his fear we don't get a closeup shot because it would be too difficult for us to do this while we're running and the cameraman doesn't have the ability hold still. We tried to do backward zoom but it just didn't have the quality that we wanted.

The next scene is where he enters the den and trips and hurts his ankle. He then limps over to a box he found and right behind him you can see the sign where it says home which he ignores and makes home not realize he's in the worst spot possible. 

Next, he pulled out his phone and sees that there no service, and while he's distracted looking at his hones and due to his injuries he doesn't realize that the monster is right beside him and he then attacks. We then get an eye-level shot of the monster or a pov shot of the monster which then develops Luci's father's fear and his emotions in his final moments.

Hopefully tomorrow we can see how well it turns out!

Mz signing off ✌ out

Good or bad news?

     I already started to film for the project on Monday this week but there was a little bit of an issue that arrived with it. The film that we took was abysmal. It was so bad that I would be embarrassed to even present this to my closest friends. The technique was off and the lighting wasn't good at all. The acting was even worse. 

    Yesterday Wednesday, March 17th, I flew to texas for spring break to visit my family, friends and go train soccer. This also gives me the opportunity to film over spring break. Luckily my cousin's house has nice woods nearby where I could film the opening.

I decided to also change the opening. The handheld camera technique wasn't going to cut it because this is Cambridge we're working with not some middle school film project.

So inorder to compensate fro this jurastic change I must film quickly and make sure al the clips I film are up to standards.

To begin with ill have to updat end change the beginning of the film opening. I decided to change up the whole opening into a better and more intese opening. The dialog was horrible so I changed it to the Lucis father running through the forest.

The beginning of the clip will be a close up of water and the father running through it I really would like to get a bit of a splash effect then a quick cut to him continuing running through the forest and somehow finding himself in the home of the "monster."

From then on I may have to continue filming the rest of the film in Florida or if time permits I can make all the props over here in texas.

Anywayas that the good or bad news and in my honest opinion I don't find it to be good to bad I find it to be neutral because it is still doable and the scenary and forest here by where my osuins live are amazing. So my main plan is to have the first opening scenes complete then transition to florida.

Mz signing off ✌ out

Shooting Day Soon!

 With film day coming up soon I had to take this opportunity to write about the opening transition and to talk about the opening credits and how they'll be displayed. 

The shooting will be Monday after school. 

The first step in producing our film will be to get the costume designers ready and the room and house ready to film. My Latino house has family over 24/7 so I had to do a lot of hard work and convincing that no one interferes Monday with my schedule. The costume designers will be minimum with a hat and shades to disguise the father. I don't have a lot of help with actors but I do have a great neighborhood and brother who offered to help. So I asked my neighbor Nichole and my brother to help me out and they said yes right away.

The next step in the development process would be to find my tripod or make one. Then go to Markham park and before we start filming take pictures of the opening scene to develop at CVS to put onto the crazy board. Then after we take the pictures will proceed on making the opening scene which will include a replica of the pictures we took because the whole point of the pictures is to work as evidence of the location.

After we film and take pictures at Markham park we start our first set of transitions there and work our way to the neighborhood in which Luci lives. Then we look at the storyboard. Make any last-minute adjustment if needed then proceed to shoot.

Then at CVS print out the pictures to put onto the crazy board and ten go home to put them on. With a layout of where to put things already, it should take no more than 5 minutes to do.

After the shooting of the opening, I should have enough time to review the footage and find the optimal sounds for the opening. I doubt ill have to make any foley sounds other than a branch snapping so I think that'll be fine. I doubt ill have enough time to edit anything while in Florida because I'll be leaving for texas in the middle of the week meaning ill have to do the editing portion in texas.

Hopefully with the review and general idea of everything will be right and fall right into place, if not what can I do? I'll just have to do the same exact thing in texas its no big deal because when a challenge confronts be I'm not one who backs down!

I'm so excited about how this is going to turn out!

this is MZ signing off ✌ out

Script

 Update for the film opening- Once the father is in the woods then falls victim to unfortunate vents the camera is no longer going to fall down and film ants eating a carcass to represent his death. The film is now going to proceed like this.

The father is going to be vlogging his experience and once he points it to himself and talks to the camera he is then knocked unconscious. The camera falls with him as the father gets dragged out of frame as if he were taken away then mauled to death (Can be inferred). The camera will tilt upward to the sky with high brightness and with around 2-3 fade cuts with opening credits. This will be the transition from the background information of the film to the beginning of the film where Luci is heading home. The quick fades from the sky to black will work as a transition from the series of vents in the past and work towards the present time in the film simultaneously representing his death as his life fades away.

Now for the script

As the film opens up with a handheld eye level shaky camera to represent what the father sees he will soon turn to face himself and he will speak to the camera the following.

"This hike is one of the best hikes I've been on so far. These trees are giving off fresh and clean oxygen and I've already picked out a few flowers for you Elain (Mother). As you saw the background and scenery are beautiful but I've been feeling this weird and scary feeling as if someone was watching me. Every now and then I hear footsteps but I can tell they're not animal footsteps unless there were of a huge animal but there aren't any birds or gators this deep in the woods."

Near the end of his lines, a loud branch snaps, and he turns and says

"Who's there?!" "Show yourself!"

The Next Piece of dialog would be the interaction with Luci's friend and his mom. There is a short interaction with Elain.

"How was your day Luci?"-Elain

"Good ma"-Luci

"Whos your friend?"-E

"Ryan"-L

"Nice to meet you Ryan"-E

"Nice to meet you too what a nice house you have"-Ryan

"thank you, Ryan. Luci hun did you get your report card yet?"-E

"Yea here it is"-L

While Elain is talking to the boys to enjoy and take advantage of their studies the kids leave upstairs to his room.

"Alright, boys use your time wisely and take advantage of your studies!"

Next, if time permits are the reaction and dialog between Ryan and Lucis as it's Ryans' first time ever seeing Luci's room.

"What is all this (Shocked)"

"It's my room I know it's a bit messy but I know where everything is. Can you pass me that pen under the wheel next to my bed?"

"Uh sure."

(Lucis pulls out and puts up crazy board)

"Whats that?"

"It's me finding out the truth about my father"

"And why did you invite me here"

"Cuz you're going to help me find out the truth" (Even more shocked)

The use of dialog and the script should develop a few aspects of Luci's life and how he's even using his friends for his personal gains. The dialog also fits in well with his complicated and messy yet well-organized life because although his room is a mess he still knows where everything is. Overall the storyboard and script go hand in hand to develop Luci's character.

This MZ signing off ✌ out

Developing Crazy Board

 In order to develop the real craziness of the mind of Luci and how devoted he is to find his father I decided on creating a Crazy board. When you search up the crazy board in google youll come across multiple pictures and sights of games and other sorts of board games. But The difference in what I'm making is the investigation of crazy boards. Where detectives just throw information onto the boards, find the missing pieces, and connect the dots whichever way they can.

                      

EX

I started with a blank poster board. I just asked my mother where I could find one and you know how moms have that secret power where they just go around the house for a minute and then when they come back magically having what you were looking for. Well, she did that and when I asked her where she found the poster board she said "I don't know" and then walked away.

I started out by measuring the lengths of the poster board. The total length of the poster board was 28.5 inches and by dividing that by two I was able to find the middle where all the ideas and dots will find a way to connect to the bottom of what Luci is trying to find.

(Wrote in pencil to later white with marker or pen)

After the measurements were completed I drew an outline of what I would like on the board and the main ideas. Although it may look a bit organized now it will soon be a mess to develop Lucis intense and continuous running mind. On the top left, it says "Markham Park" so within that section for now will have ideas of what to do and what he found there. Then the Bottom left was Paranormal activity and sighting along with people's experiences, and the bottom right was police interaction. The same applies to every quadrant on the board other than the middle. top middle and top right. The middle will be a photograph of Luci's father while the top left will be a question mark of who were looking for. The Top right is just in case of any changes and extra ideas to write down

Underneath are close-ups of a slightly more detailed Crazy board creation

Above develops the Markham park aspects and what to be expected. Inside the picture are going to be two photographs developing how the monster only comes out at night or past the set time assigned to it. The photographs taken were by Luci himself by going to the multiple sights in which others have"disappeared" but really died and got covered up by the police.

As we move along we go into the paranormal and other people's experiences category. this would basically be the research and data. He knows he isn't the only one realizing that there are weird things going on in the city around him. So he decides to further look into it through the internet. The local police do a poor job of covering their tracks and recently he was able to find evidence he isn't the only one. Inside the picture, we can see two sightings. One is of another person and then his own sighting he took just as he was running home from the forest. Another source of evidence posted on the board is again the evidence found on social media.

In this section, the police investigation failure of a cover-up is brought up. He finds inconsistencies in the reports and common factors in others. he also uses the footage of his father and other evidence he stole from the police database as his base of evidence that the police are covering up whatever is lurking in those woods.

The final section is just extra details I would like to incorporate and a reminder to buy red thin rope and black thumbtacks to contrast from the whiteboard so it is clear to the audience the abundance of information he has collected over the years as such a young child. A kind of guideline I would like to follow within the board is the 5W's. Who? what? When? where? why? 

Till next time

Mz signing off ✌ out

Story board 2

 The first Image below is the continuation from the last story board. In the last story board we just develop the opening scene of the father disappearing. In the story board presented below were developing the start an opening scenes of Lucis home life and just the beginning of the movie. We open up to Lucis house and possibly a few other home shots if we need more time but i doubt it as i think with what i have develop it will easily surpass 2 minutes. So after the opening of the house and his home life There is a wide shot that develop the movement of the characters as they go home Lucis and his friend. They ;aster get home in which Luci has to open the door to get in then he has to interact with his mother. This develop how his emotional attachment has gotten so strong to his dead father and he's become less attached to his mother. This is developed through the sharp and unconnected interaction wihthis mom. Here he just answered sharply and super fast. He then introduces his strengths and weaknesses. This was a different touch that i thought wold be pretty cool to get a better understanding of who luci is. Luci is a smart kid with getting high grades in classes which hep him in real life and what he does and then he gets lower grades in classes that he either doesn't care about or he doesn't need. His friend is develop at a decent person who has manners and cares fro others. This is develop trough his actions of being nice and comforting to Luci and his mother when he says nice house to Luis mother.Lucis relationship what his mother  further develops how he is determined in some aspects of life. To further develop his relationship with his mother and how unattached he is to her he then runs upstairs as shes talking and then closes the door just as she finished talking.

The while going up the stairs I would like to use a reverse zoom but if it's too difficult ill just have to use the shoulder shot while the mother talks then cut right to the door closing. Once the door closes. The we go further into an over-the-shoulder shot or pov shot. Then we go to a close-up of the friend's face developing their reaction to Luci's crazy and disorganized roof as well. There will be a right to left pan in the film to introduce the full room to the viewers as Lucis grabs the crazy board and places it over the TV.

The last few shots and scenes above develop the friend's kindness and comfort because he is so respectful; towards Lucis, as he introduces something so private to him. The final lines develop the rest of the film and what's to come from our protagonist Lucis as he is going to find out the truth behind his father's death. The only problem with this scene is I must find a way to make it not seem trailer-like. Other than that this should be a general idea of what I plan to do with the plot of the film. The only thing left out was the hammock although it is still going to be hung up. I could easily add it to the film after he asks whats this all about but I would like to keep things how they are now.

This is Mz signing off ✌ out

schedual

The blog posting has been a great hassle when producing or planning for the film opening. Coming up with new ideas to write about and then a detailed description pg the process. Now luckily that I'm on the right track I've been able to cut it down from four blog postings to three a week. Before when I was doing 4 blog posting I would do one Monday, Wednesday, and then Thursday and the final one Sunday.

Now that I've cut it down to three per week it is a bit easier yet at the same time a lot harder. Now that I've discussed so much about what I'm going to do, research, planning, and much more there are fewer and fewer things to write about. This is forcing me to come closer to having to actually start producing the film opening. My schedule with three bog postings a week is going to be relatively the same with one on Monday, Wednesday, and last but not least Friday. 

In the future, I've been planing a bit on what I'm going to do and by when so I can have a deadline of when things should be done. This week I'm going to talk to one of my soccer teammates who is a photographer and ask him if he would like to help me with my project. Hopefully, if he says yes to my offer it would make the production as he is familiar with the structure of film production as he's taken Aice media studies in the past he's said. I did ask him a few questions before about camera angles and shots and he answered most of them correctly (he probably just needs to be refreshed) but overall he could be a great asset if he is our cameraman and from his previous work this project could come out extremely well.

In the upcoming week will soon have started my production. I want to start filming by the end of this week or Friday. And have it all complete by Monday so I can just edit and insert audio and music during the editing process.

For this week's blog post I'm going to write about the creation of the crazy board, organization of my room, and continue with the storyboard and maybe script what the actors are going to say. Now that I've got a good idea of what I'm going to do next week and planned it out ahead I feel a lot better about myself and what I can be able to accomplish within a week's work.

Locations

 Because we're just making the opening of the film I'm not planning on moving around too much because it's just the introduction to the film. The areas I chose in which to film are going to be Markham Park and also my own house.

The Markham park bike trails would be an optimal location where I film with the correct ambiance and tone I'm trying to develop. With all the shade and spooky lighting, it should develop well the ambiance of the film and the suspense trying to be formulated. The shadows and dark color scheme of the background develop an omneous and suspenseful environment and if we tie it together with the situational environment it should be used as a harbinger or foretell that something is awful is about to happen.

In order to incorporate the setting, we also have to discuss a little bit about costume design. The costume design of the film would be a dark color scheme other than a white shirt. The rest of the colors would be dark brown, brown, blue, and darker colors to develop a darker tone to the film. Her in the into I'm really trying to develop the opening that should funnel into the rest of the film and how suspenseful the film will be. The overall point is to try and develop suspensefulness in the opening and develop it thought the rest of the film with the opening.

Before we enter the house I would like to develop a few establishing shots of where we are going o have our protagonist Luci spend most of his time within the opening. The film deas will be posted in another blog post about the continuation of the storyboard. The opening sots will include a full shot of the house or little snippets or clips of parts of the house to develop the feel for the house. Then the protagonist walks in and goes straight to his room closing the door behind him. Hopefully, with the few establishing shots, we can develop a calming ambiance and a switch of pace from intense and death to warm and welcoming and a safe space for Luci to express himself and his lifestyle.

With the use of a few mise-en-scene elements, I can develop Luci's true feelings and emotions about the love he still has from his father in his room where he will spend a good amount of time planning and researching. In the picture above is a hammock and its true representation is about how his father would sometimes spend the night in the woods and this used to be his hammock that he passed down to Luci and he cherishes it by hanging it up in his room. What makes the hammock stand out is that usually we see hammocks outside or in the back yard or hanging by a tree but Luci installed it into his room so he could never forget about his father. Lucis's room will also include a crazy board and maybe a few more elements in which will be able to develop Lucis true nature in just the beginning or leave clues that the viewer may have to piece together.

This is mz signing off for the day ✌ out