Back to square one

I went to return the equipment at Becon TV on Monday, sad that we weren't able to film anything over the weekend.😞 I became stressed since other groups had already rented out the equipment for the other weekends so we didn't have a way to use it at any other time. I finally figured something out with my classmate, Ana, who was renting out the equipment from Wednesday to Sunday but was only filming on Sunday so we were able to use it on Friday.

Alexia and I continued developing our new idea that we came up with on the peer feedback day and began a storyboard with as much detail as possible to be able to have a clear idea of what we needed to shoot so we could get it done in one day. We will first focus on the shots and movements to then incorporate sound and mise-en-scene into the filming. We plan to film more shots than just the ones on the storyboard in case one works better than the other and we have more footage to play, so it serves as a guide to help us know where to start.

Filming... or our lack of it

Yesterday, Saturday, March 9th was our scheduled first day of filming. We planned to meet at 1pm and we had already confirmed with our friend, Valentina to act in it as the main character. However, I had a volunteering event in the morning and I didn't get back home until 1pm and I needed to shower and I was extremely exhausted. I called Alexia to let her know I was running late and also clarify what we were exactly filming since we had liked the idea from the peer feedback from the day before. We soon realized that we really had no set plan on what we were going to film since we discarded the idea of the confession booth in the church and we had nothing planned for the new scene with the pictures of the victims.

Alexia and I started to freak out because we needed to film during the weekend since we weren't going to have the equipment during the week. We decided to meet in the town center at 3pm to film the date scene since we wouldn't need to prepare a set for it. I contacted my friend, Francisco to see if he could act as the man in the date scene and he was available at 4pm, which was perfect since it gave us time to plan each shot and movement of the scene before they arrived so we could shoot the scene as fast as possible. However, Valentina was not available for the rest of the day since she had plans at 3pm so we didn't have a girl for our film. Neither of us wants to act in it unless we absolutely needed it. We realized we wouldn;t be able to fil on Sunday either since everyone was busy. We will have to return the equipment without having had a chance to use it but hopefully, it will be available for check out soon so we are able to film.

Becon TV!

Hello! So after school on Friday, Alexia and I headed to Becon TV in Davie to pick up the equipment we were borrowing for the weekend. We met with James Guarasci who gave us a lesson on how to use all of the equipment. The camera he lent us was very user-friendly for beginners since neither of us has any real experience with cameras. He showed us how to control features on the camera such as the shutter speed, to experiment to get the best results for our opening scene. Mr. Guarasci also showed us how to use the lights and control the brightness and temperature to control the lighting. We didn't need any audio equipment since our main sound would be sound effects, music and a possible voiceover.

We were very happy to have reached out to Mr. Guarasci because he was very helpful and gave us really useful tips and advice on how to film our project and encouraged us to experiment with the different features on the camera. He even told us about an editing software called DaVinci Resolve which is apparently very easy to use and makes videos look very professional. We will definitely check it out and see what editing software we like best: WeVideo or DaVinci. I signed an agreement to bring back the equipment on Monday since our plan was to film on Saturday and finish on Sunday.

Peer Feedback

Today we did a peer feedback activity in class to receive input from classmates about our ideas for the portfolio project. I explain our ideas and storyline to my group, supporting it with the research we made. They all thought it was really good, but it was too much for the opening scene and could cause some confusion.  One thing they really liked was the idea of keeping the woman's identity hidden completely. One of the people in my group noted that it would require an extensive amount of editing to achieve what we wanted to do so we might want to space out our workload as much as possible. They proceeded to bounce ideas back and forth to help me better develop our story or come up with a different way to present the story.

After some brainstorming, they helped me develop a new storyline which I instantly liked because it felt me put together than our original idea. The opening scene would take place in the woman's house, in a dark room where she hangs up pictures of men that have an "X" marked on their faces, indicating they were her past victims. Her face is never shown but her red nails are clearly portrayed, which would be her signature feature. The scene would then shift into a normal day where a woman joins a man on a date but neither of their faces are ever shown. and they clank wine glasses and the camera focuses once again on her hands, revealing it's the same woman from before. We remain hiding her identity but we have something that distinguishes her.

In this story, she would be a serial killer, which doesn't follow the genre conventions of wife-killing-husbands movies but I believe it will be an interesting choice since these types of movies don't have specific guidelines like other types of suspense movies do. It's based on the idea of a black widow, which everyone understands.

Chicago

Hello! I'm back with some updates! Even though we had established a somewhat detailed storyboard for our opening scene, I was still thinking of ways that we can successfully transmit our idea to our audience. I was talking with Alexia on the phone when I came up with the idea of maybe incorporating a voiceover into our scene to give some context to our story so it's understandable. She suddenly thought of making it into a jail scene where she is recounting the details of how she killed her husband, but not explaining why she did it. Instantly I thought of the film Chicago (2002) dir. by Rob Marshall and the scene of Cell Block Tango:

I couldn't believe I had never thought of using this movie as an inspiration when I first started doing research. The whole movie follows two women who killed their husbands and has an entire song dedicated to women in the Cook County jail singing about who they killed their husbands. We would like to incorporate the persona of the women in this film who unapologetically admit to their crimes, especially Velma's, who has a very strong and powerful personality. Although in our original idea we wanted to keep her identity completely hidden, we believe this is a good incorporation to build our character.

Storyboard!

Through our research, we've gathered information that has helped us make decisions on how our opening scene will unfold.

Our scene will start with a black screen that will transition into a close up of church bells with the synchronous sound of the bells. The scene will jump cut to a close up of a woman walking in heels, along with the sound of heels and jump cuts once again to a medium shot, revealing the church in the background and introducing a woman dressed in all black with a veil over her face, walking into the church. She walks into a confessionary booth and begins talking but the dialogue is muted. The confession is cut into parallel cuts with a crime scene that is revealed through fast-paced close-ups. Close-ups would include bloody handprints, blood dripping (to the rhythm of the bells, which will continue playing quietly in the background), a broken frame of a married couple on the floor, the weapon used and the face of the man that was killed. 

Although we have most of our idea planned out, we are still missing several factors. The wife is supposed to take revenge on the lover of her husband, but we don't know how to hint that into the opening without giving it away. We are also not sure if the idea we have now is clear enough without having to reveal who the woman is. We want to keep her identity hidden since she's confessing to the murder, so as to build up suspense. 

We will finalize our ideas at the beginning of this week so we are ready to film on Saturday. Our only concern is that it will seem like it's a short film and there's no continuity to the scene. I will keep you updated on what we come up with this week!

Representation of women in film

In films, the woman is typically portrayed as delicate and gentle. In horror and suspense films, the woman typically takes on the archetype of the mother, which generally does everything in her power to protect the ones she loves, even if it means sacrificing herself. The woman also has the role of the wife, which is generally loyal and loving to her husband.

However, directors sometimes choose to break the representation conventions of women in films. Focusing on the horror and suspense genres, screenwriters may choose to do the exact opposite of what's expected of a woman. As discussed on the post about the research of films of women killing their husbands, the woman is first portrayed according to the genre conventions to make her look innocent, adding to the element of suspense. As the plot unfolds, these qualities turn to evil ones. We intend to do the same with our main character by making her look incapable of killing her husband.

Honeymoon (2014)

Filming schedule

Alexia and I made a schedule for ourselves in order to stay up to date and actively work on our project. The schedule details all of the days for the next month that we are available to work on the project, whether that may be for planning, filming or editing. We won't necessarily meet up every time we need to work on the project, but this schedule will make it easier to coordinate times to meet when it's necessary.

We plan to start filming on Saturday, March 9th and try to get as much footage as possible. Although it's not on the schedule, we are willing to sacrifice time on Sunday, March 10th to finish filming so we have the rest of the time to edit. By filming early on, it gives us more flexibility to make any changes that will require reshooting certain parts of the film. Neither of us is going away for spring break so we have that entire week to edit.

We will email Jim Guarasci from Becon this week to borrow equipment to film this weekend.

More and more research!

As we continued to brainstorm the storyline for our plot, Alexia and I decided to do more research, specifically for movies where the wife kills her husband. What I discovered is that there aren't really any specific genre conventions for these types of movies, however, they help in the development of our main character.

The first movie I studied was The Girl on the Train (2016) dir. by Tate Taylor:

The opening scene allows the reader to understand who the character but at the same time it leaves her with an aura of mystery. Why is she so observant of the couple? Does she know them at all? Furthermore, the opening scene leaves the viewer intrigued by how her life will be intertwined with the life of the couple or whether she will remain an observant of their lives.

I also took time to read the synopsis of the film to understand where the "wife killing husband" factor came in. In the opening scene, there was nothing in her behavior that could entail that she would kill her husband. It turns out that at the end, she kills him for revenge of what he has done to the other characters, serving justice. Unlike male killers in horror films, she doesn't have any psychological disorders.

The second film I studied was Kill Bill (2003) dir. by Quentin Tarantino:

In this opening scene, the main character, The Bride, is left to die by her ex-lover, Bill, on her wedding day.  She is on the floor completely helpless, overtowerd by a man, whose voice is the only thing revealed about him. The wedding dress she wears gives her a touch of feminity, playing with the idea of a damsel in distress. However, she vows to seek revenge on Bill and his friends for trying to kill her and her unborn child and embarks on a journey where she hunts them down, killing them one by one. The character goes from being helpless and weak to being a killing machine, driven by revenge.

Even though the films have very different plots and the characters have very little in common, they both transform in order to fulfill their mission of seeking revenge and serving justice, their main motives. Unlike movies of similar genres such as slasher films, the killers aren't mentally ill and their actions don't reciprocate past traumas. Their victims are their husbands/lovers, which are the source of their abuse and trauma, not innocent people. The main theme is revenge.

What to do, what to do...

After we decided what genre our film should be in, we brainstormed over the weekend to see what ideas we could come up with. We discussed our ideas on Sunday to begin our planning. Alexia came up with a very original idea for our film, telling the story of a woman who killed her cheating husband and is seeking revenge on his lover. The sequence of the opening would be as followed: It begins with a black screen and then a clanging of church bells introduces the scene to a gothic church, with a focus on the bells. Then the camera shifts to a woman's shoes, her heels, as you hear them clanking on the floor. Then a woman dressed in all black with a veil over her head is pictured walking into a church to the funeral of her husband. Within the people there, the lover of the husband is highlighted and the wive's expression changes once she sees her, hinting that she's seeking revenge. Alexia also thought to incorporate flashbacks of the wife catching the husband cheating on her as a parallel to the funeral to hint as to why she would have killed him.

After we discussed, I pointed out that we might have to change the funeral into maybe the wife visiting the grave of the husband and seeing the woman there because it will be very hard to make a funeral scene. In addition, I think that the flashbacks give too much away in only the first scene, which we want to avoid since our film is supposed to be suspenseful. 

I came up with a different way to develop the story, which would follow the woman going to church but into a confessionary as it parallels to the crime scene of the death of the husband. The confession would be muted and will be replaced with music to add tension. The plot would be different since it would follow a woman who is actually a psychopath who makes men fall in love with her and then kills them, a black widow. However, this idea is a lot more complex and it's hard to hint the plot without giving it away since it's supposed to be the major plot twist since she'd be pictured as a normal person.

We still haven't decided what plot we will follow so we will each develop our ideas more to see what works best for the film opening to be successfully made. In order to film, we plan to use the resources of the company that came into our class to see if we could borrow their equipment. We also will utilize audio effects to enhance the quality of the scene and WeVideo or iMovie to edit our footage.

We will hopefully decide on our story within the next few days to create our story board and begin filming. We will also begin to look for potential actors, especially for our main character. We are excited to make our ideas into reality!

Film Opening Research

Hello! My partner, Alexia, and I decided to do a film opening for our portfolio project but we debated back and forth about what genre to choose and what our film should be about. We decided to begin our research by looking at past year's projects. We found that the most intriguing film openings were part of the suspense or thriller genres because they built up the most tension to keep the audience interested, the main goal for film openings. We decided to each one of us to do our own research with suspense or thriller film openings to gather information about the genre conventions and the way the story is unfolded. The first film opening I studied is Jaws (1975) dir. by Steven Spielberg, one of the most iconic suspense films of all time. Steven Spielberg utilizes the unknown identity of the shark in the opening scene to create tension in the opening scene as well as a buildup on the music when the girl is attacked and then sucked into the water by the shark. In this opening scene, it uses the "2+2" element that gives the audience just enough information to know what's going on without giving it all away. This element is something we plan to keep in mind throughout the planning of the film to successfully create the suspense factor. We don't plan on hiding the identity of the main character, but we'll incorporate the idea of the unknown through certain aspects surrounding the character.

Another film opening I research is Vertigo (1958) dir. by Alfred Hitchcock, another iconic suspense and thriller film. This opening scene also utilizes music to heighten the tension in the fast moving scene, which beings mid-action, utilizing the "2+2" element since it doesn't give away every detail but it has enough for the viewer to understand that it's a police chase. The main focus of the film is the fear of heights, vertigo, which is instantly highlighted when the man looks down as he hangs on the roof of the building and is grown with fear. The scene uses fear to create suspense, especially since it is unresolved in the opening. As we brainstorm ideas for our film opening, we also want to incorporate the mid-action sequence for our opening scene to help create the suspense without giving everything away and keeping the audience intrigued.

As we continue to brainstorm and solidify our storyline for our film opening, we will consider all of the information gathered to successfully convey our story to our audience. We will also consider important elements such as the lighting which is essential in any suspense and thriller film, and music to build up the tension.

Representation in Film

Adolescents are typically portrayed as self-absorbed and lazy individuals who have no regards to anything happening around the world that doesn't relate to their own personal and often meaningless problems. The only things that teenagers are portrayed to care about are superficial things such as their self-image, if they're "popular," what parties they go to and who they date. They are also represented as very irritable and rude to adults.

For example, the movie "Clueless" follows teenager Cher and her best friend Dion, who live in luxurious Beverly Hills and only care about going shopping. They are both completely clueless about the world around them and remain ignorant because they only pay attention to anything that revolves them. Cher's ex-step-brother makes fun of her because of the self-absorbed and ignorant behavior that she doesn't even care to watch the news. She has an epiphany towards the end of the film and changes her behavior and begins to see the world and everyone around her and stops worrying about superficial and materialistic things. Another example is the movie "Project X" which features Thomas, Costa and JB, three "uncool" high schoolers who throw the biggest party of their high school years to desperately fit in the cool crowd. They wait for their parents to go out of town and tell everyone about the party, which results in hundreds of teenagers showing up since the address got leaked. Instead of canceling the party due to a large number of people that went, they continue with the party despite the consequences of trashing the house and getting arrested for underage drinking and illegal drugs at the party. They just want to fit in which is enough reason to risk it all.

This representation of teenagers, while some aspects may not be far from the truth, is still taken to an extreme and don't apply to all teenagers. The representation of not caring about anything going on is unfair because it entitles adults to dismiss any ideas that the youth may come up with or any emotions they express. I retain the view that teenagers do enjoy partying, which often relates to illegal possession of drugs and alcohol. Since teenagers are still in the phase of growing up, it is common to be reckless and engage in illicit activities without thinking of the consequences. However, I challenge the idea of teenagers being completely ignorant and indifferent because many teenagers do stand up for their beliefs and voice their opinions, as demonstrated through countless youth-led movements in history. The current March for Our Lives is a challenger to the stereotype itself.

Film Genre Database Entry Sub Genre: Slasher Films

Genre conventions- content: 
Slasher films revolve around the main antagonist, a serial killer, that goes on a killing spree, killing all of the main characters one by one. The serial killer typically suffered a childhood trauma that caused them to become violent and kill as a way to have some control over their lives. Most killers in slasher films are masked to hide their identity and increase the suspense of the film, as well as making them appear unhuman to go along with their superhuman strengths. The killer's choice of weapon is handheld (e.g., knife, chainsaw, machete) to cause grotesque and painful deaths of the victims, hence the name "slasher" killers. This also allows the killer to be up close and personal to the victim, which adds to the horror and suspense of the film and the sadistic nature of the killer. Another convention of slasher killers is that they are male, big, and exert superhuman strengths and withstand any stabbings/shootings/etc., making them almost impossible to kill or capture. Most are misogynistic since they're main targets are young, "impure" girls who have engaged in sexual relations.
The typical targets of the killer are adolescents and/or young adults, who are usually in high school or college. The main characters form a friend group that generally consists of the jock, the popular girl, the geek, and the final girl. The first victim is usually the popular girl who might be engaging in sexual acts, which is the motive for the killer to kill her. Then one by one the characters are killed off until the final girl is the last one standing and confronts the antagonist, sometimes able to take him down. The final girl is the representation of innocence and purity that can defeat evil.
The location of the film is usually in the suburbs in normal looking homes and neighborhoods to which the audience can relate to. This adds to the horror and fear of the movie because it suggests that serial killers can show up at even the safest of places. Another common location is isolated areas such as campsites and the woods because it adds to the suspense since no one else is around to rescue the victims from the killer.

Genre conventions- production techniques:
The establishing shot of slasher films is done through panning to introduce the audience to the setting and create the creepy and unsettling atmosphere right away. The movie builds momentum with tracking shot by following the victims around to suggest an evil lurking around the house or the area. Since slasher films are notorious for being extremely grotesque and graphic, close-ups and extreme close-ups are used to show the fatal injuries and cause fear and disgust to the audience. Close-ups are also used to indicate the fear of the victims as they're being chased and ultimately stabbed to death.
Low key lighting is used throughout the entire films to create a suspenseful and eerie atmosphere and further distort the killer's identity who is often masked by the shadows. The lighting allows the killer to lurk around and sneak attack the victims to create jump scares, which is a big factor of the horror of the films.
Sound is used in slasher films to create horror and suspense. Ominous music is used to make the audience uneasy and suggests that there is an evil lurking around and that something is about to happen. Sudden bursts of music equate to stabbing to scare the audience and build tension.
 Film Example #1: Scream (1996)



The movie follows the main character Sidney and her group of friends who live in a suburban town that's haunted by a serial killer, Ghostface, who killed the first victims, Casey and her boyfriend, within the first few minutes of the film. Since the target of the killer is teenagers, school is temporarily closed and a curfew is set for the whole town. Sidney and her friends have a party in one of their houses where Ghostface eventually ends up. He starts killing each victim one by one in very gruesome ways without being taken down since it seems impossible for him to be captured. His identity remains unknown for the audience but it's hinted that the killer is amongst them. The final girl is te last one standing at the climax of the film when it's revealed that the killer is actually her boyfriend. His motive for the killing spree was that her mother messed up his parent's marriage and was looking for revenge. Sidney confronts him and is able to defeat him and everything is resolved.

Film Example #2: Halloween (1978)


The film begins with a young Michael Meyers who kills his sister, showing that he was deeply troubled ever since he was little. Fast forward many years later, he escapes the mental hospital he's admitted to and goes back to his hometown for Halloween. The movie follows the main character and final girl, Laurie, who is the innocent one of her friends, Lynda and Annie. Laurie notices a figure who is referred to as The Shape following her around all day but fails to identify who it is. That night, Laurie is babysitting and is alone at a house with the little boy, Tommy. Her friend Annie who is babysitting in a house nearby drops off Lyndsey to meet up with her boyfriend. She's quickly killed off when she gets in the car to go pick him up. Lynda is with her boyfriend and they engage in sexual acts and are both killed off right after. Laurie, the last one standing, believes that her friends are all playing a prank on her but soon discovers that they've all been brutally killed. As the final girl, she confronts Michael Myers and tries to kill him multiple times but he possesses superhuman strengths that make him immune to any stabbings. She is able to take off his mask, revealing his identity. The doctor from the mental hospital comes and shoots him repeatedly, making him fall off a balcony but sees he's vanished, proving he's impossible to kill.

Slasher film examples:
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)



Stage Fright (1987)



Friday the 13th (1980)



A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)



Child’s Play (1988)