PRODUCTION of FILM OPENING

 On Tuesday March 14th my partner and I began the production process of our film opening. After planning out our shots and our set we decided to put everything together. Our production apart from some difficulties outside of our control went very smoothly. The filming all felt normal and clean. 

This portion of the film opening consists of the scenes inside the main character's home. This includes him arriving, going to his room and turning on his favorite song. 

During this process we wanted to introduce some ideas that are key to our film opening. For example, the most important aspect we are developing in the opening is that the main character loves music. Music acts as an escape from his normal life and takes him to a place where he can forget his troubles and just feel relaxed and no stress. 

We also wanted to represent the Latin community especially in this portion of the film opening. The main character says "Ma llegue" as he enters his house and has a Honduran flag over his bed. This is important because of how we attempt to give proper representation to Latin immigrants in America. Read More Below (LATIN REPRESENTATION)

The camera really treated us very well. Its settings just worked perfectly for us. It also proved to have some really excellent quality and just gave us the freedom to go for more risky shots just because it honestly did allow us to do so. 

The tripod also proved to be such a great help. The tripod we used had a setting where we could both place it steady and raise it with the turning of a regulator. Scenes like the ones on the bed as seen above were greatly helped by the regulator of the tripod because of our lack of room.

LATIN REPRESENTATION

 

This is my partner, Daniel. Daniel is from Honduras, he was born there, lived there and only moved here for middle school. He loves his culture and that can just clearly be seen by his apparel and just his interest in sports like soccer as that was what he grew up watching and playing. 

We decided to bring some of that into our film opening by making that the original home of the main character. We used a Honduras flag in his room for example because he is proud of his heritage and had just recently moved from there. We also included some Spanish into our film opening. Although it was a short line, that inclusion just adds a nice little touch to our video.

This representation in the media is important. It isn't that Latin people are not 'properly' represented or not at all, but it is always good to represent a minority. Especially for our film. This is a very real situation as it of course happened with my partner in his own actual life. Moving to a different country is not easy and seeing it from a perspective of someone similar to them could help Latin teen immigrants feel more comfortable. This also informs other people of some of the struggles that come with situations like those. It should inspire others to be more aware and inspired to do more good rather than bad in the world. 

SET DESIGN

 Before going into the filming portion of the opening my partner and I wanted

to design a set for the main characters room. 

There were many ideas that we wanted to develop in this set. 
For example, the opening is about a boy who moves from a different country to a new one, so we decided it would be smart to include a bunch of boxes lying around and some suit cases. We also removed the sheets and pillow cases from the bed in order to give it a new, unprepared feeling. 

Another thing we had to keep in mind was what he kept out of the boxes. The character we are developing is not necessarily a boring character we decided to make him seem cooler and more interesting as that is an idea we want to push in later development so we left out some nicer, designer shoes. 

One more thing we wanted to make sure is to tend to our character's interests for that reason we left out a record player that he likes to listen to music on. The music is an important part of the film opening as it acts as an escape for him from the place he does not like to a place he really does. He also keeps above his bed a Honduran flag, to keep his heritage and to hint to the audience that he is not from the United States.

Here is how our set actually turned out. We are very proud that we were able to emulate our plans into a real life almost identical set. We still kept in mind all the things we wanted to develop while managing in a room that was not previously empty and we were able to work around it here. 

ISSUES in SCHOOL

 Over the past couple of months situations outside of my partner and I's control have hindered our working process. Our school has been under a great deal of drama and it had not been any easy to deal with.

Our school had a whole week that was messed up by seemingly one student. In late February there were way too many lockdowns to count. Ever since what happened at a nearby high school Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the schools in our county have been very cautious about school safety. So when shotgun shells were found in our school's locker rooms our school did the only thing they could: shut down the school. There was a day were we stayed in our second class for almost three hours more than we do normally. This missing of class combined with fear of parents sending their kids to school created a combination that nobody would like to be in. 

Recently, issues with drugs have come up in our school, specifically vaping. Because of this danger the school's had called a mandatory assembly in our school's auditorium during our free period to work on and possibly film our opening. This was made even worse due to the fact that my partner and I's schedule could not be any more different.

STORYBOARDING

 

The two images below are the storyboards for the film opening

A storyboard is a sequence of images that my partner and I used to describe the different shots and angles that we decide to include in our film opening. The purpose behind these story boards is to give us visuals as directors and camera operators. We like to put down on paper what we would like our composition to look like. We also, before describing the actions in the drawing include a kind of shot (close-up, medium, establishing, etc.) just to get a little idea of what we are planning to do with what we are shooting and how we want it to appear in a finished product.

We are VERY BUSY

 As our school system is approaching its Spring Break my partner and I wanted to begin to plan out some of the things we want to accomplish during that specific time. The Spring Break here in South Florida is normally around a week off of school in the middle to end of March. We thought that this would be perfect for us. we thought: no school for a week would work so well for us we would have so much time to film and edit and work on the film opening. Well just our luck that our schedules conflict so badly. I participate in the drama program my school offers and I have a duet acting piece that scored highly in the districts competition. This means, that I would qualify to compete at the state level against other drama students from Florida. The issue with this is I miss two full days of schools before I go off to compete. Those two days just so happen to be the last two days before the Spring Break. 

This would normally be fine. Just two days is no big deal, but my partner had already made plans for Spring Break. He will be leaving the Friday before and will only come back late into the week of Spring Break that we have. This poses a great issue. Although, we do have everything planned already, it is a big time consumer filming and editing our film opening so that would be a great struggle.

This had to be changed. My partner and I sat each other down and we had a conversation about how we were going to space this film opening out. We figured out a date to film, we finalized our plan, and we began to scout locations for our opening to be filmed. This just reduced a ton of stress and we are both prepared to put our all into this opening.

The PLOT

Purpose- The film opening is about somebody moving from a new country to the United States and how he is beginning to adjust to his new life. My partner and I both have experienced this directly. We both know what it is like to go from one country to another and how hard it is initially to get the hang of things and fit in with the new people around us. 

Beginning- The will begin with some seemingly normal looking, but very telling shots of the boy on his first day of his new school. It will mostly be shots of the boy sitting alone during lunch, getting lost on the way to class, and signs that this new school does not feel normal to him. This is strictly to develop the feelings we believe for him to feel. As we know that it starts off very difficult in a new country. There are likely no friends maybe family, but not always. 

Middle- After his first day of school he gets home and has a short conversation with his mother. This conversation will be in another language because the boy is an immigrant. This will kind of just be a short tease for the reasoning behind the boy coming to this new country. Nothing too revealing so the film opening does not spoil the whole thing, but just enough for the expectation of more.

End- The kid goes to his room. There are a bunch of empty boxes in his room and few things are actually laid out. Considering he just moved to this new country, his room more likely than not will be empty apart from some boxes and maybe a table. He just falls to the floor and is already fed up with this new home. 

The GENRE

The main genres that the film opening falls into are the genres of Drama and Coming of Age. 

Drama- The film opening is a drama because it is the whole piece is an emotional piece. Coming to a new place is not easy anywhere and the factors that lead to someone moving could be something horrible. My partner and I believe that it is very important to touch upon the more unhappy sides of things such as moving to a new country because, at least from my experiences it was not for a happy reason.

The clip I decided to insert for inspiration for this genre is from the Pursuit of Happyness (2006) directed by Gabriele Muccino. This scene perfectly encapsulates the emotion that would be present in a continuation of this film opening. The scene includes a parent breaking down because he tries very hard to be a good parent, but life just continues to bring him down and being that good parent is made even harder. Something similar would occur in a continuation of my partner and I's film opening. The mother will feel sorry for making the boy move from his home country to a place she knows he does not like. It is just an emotional moment made even more emotional because of a sense of helplessness. 

Coming of Age- The film opening is a coming of age because it is a story about a boy growing up following his events and things he learns to be able to grow as an individual. He learns new things and experiences new things that will take him far and help him live the rest of his life in his new country. 

This choice for inspiration may seem odd for the feeling that is trying to be conveyed, but actually works in a very useful way. The scene is about a boy who just moved from a big city to a smaller, Midwestern town that has outlawed dancing. Similar to the main character of our film opening; apart from the whole dancing thing. Anyways, this scene is very similar to what the film would be. In this short clip a boy is seen teaching someone in the town they just moved to things that he enjoys from back home. In our film, we believe that our main character will be taught by the new people he meets and may teach them some of his hobbies from back home too.
 

The EQUIPMENT

For the film opening my partner and I had decided to use a Nikon Z30 as our camera. My partner has one and we thought that it would work great for this project. Nikon cameras are normally known for having great endurance and having very clear picture quality. They also have individual options and controls on them that will prove to be very useful. 

My partner and I will also be using a Targus TGT-58TR tripod in order to get our shots to be still. This greatly improves the quality of our film opening. We are trying to make it fit a dramatic tone so a shaky screen just will not work. We need more still and more realistic shots to show the meaning behind this opening.

Transition to Portfolio Project

 This media blog is now going to transition into the portfolio part of my project. This portfolio aspect of my blog will consist of the planning process so some of the ideas we came up with and plans that we have for our film opening, the production of the actual film opening so camera work and acting that we do in person and the post-production so mostly editing of me and my partner’s movie opening. 

We plan to focus our film opening on a teenage boy who is new to the United States as me and my partner both have experienced the feelings that come along with being new to a country and its customs. We want to make it an emotional piece that follows the boy’s adjustments to a new life in a completely different country.