Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Introduction to the Characters!

Introducing: the main characters!

CELIA ROSE:

The first character is Celia Rose, aka Cee. I chose this name because it means “heavenly” and I thought it would be a good juxtaposition to her true character, which is quite emotionally immature and toxic. Also, Rose would be a good representation that she is a red-themed character. She is a white teenage girl with dark hair and eyes, a thin body, and of average height. She is confident and humorous, with a tendency to take jokes too far. She is not the main character, but the leading antagonist. She has the most lines in the film because the actress that plays her is more well versed than my main character’s actor. For her wardrobe, I want to use an array of darker colors, such as red and black, which represent her anger, passion, emotion, and immorality. There is going to be a pop of color of the necklace she wears (yellow) which represents that she is a danger to those around her due to her insecure tendencies to lash out. Her hair will be curly and wild, like her carefree personality, and her makeup will be subtle yet intense, with noticeable lipstick and eyeliner. 

PORTRAIT


COLOR PALETTE:

Here is this character’s color palette.




PLAYLIST

Here are some songs that remind me of this character.

Girl That You Love - Panic! At The Disco
Significance: The lyrics (such as “drown every sense you own, for the girl that you love, girl you loath”) symbolize that she is very good at being manipulative, so much so that even when others know she is being toxic, they do not care as long as she stays in their life.

Pity Party - Melanie Martinez
Significance: The lyrics (such as “maybe it's a cruel joke on me, whatever, whatever”) show that she is very self-pitying, even in situations where she should be sympathetic towards others. She is self-centered and has difficulty seeing past her own emotions, leading to her being inconsiderate. 

Borderline - Tame Impala
Significance: The lyrics (such as “gone a little far this time with something, how was I to know?”) represent the situation that she gets herself into in the opening, where she snaps and screams at Ethan for writing a suicide note. Although she knows she went too far, she still does not feel remorse.

Cherry Wine - grentperez
Significance: The lyrics (such as “why don't we move over to that empty space? i'll bet you twenty bucks i'll put a smile on your face”) shows the side of her that is appealing, explaining why people put up with her manipulative personality: she is fun and bubbly.

Witchy Woman - Eagles
Significance: The lyrics (such as “raven hair and ruby lips, sparks fly from her fingertips”) remind me a lot of the character and how I envision her to be. 

Needs - Verzache
Significance: The lyrics (such as “control yourself, I can tell that you don't love nobody but yourself”) remind me of her apathy toward Ethan and her inability to think of what he may have been going through while writing the letter.

Homemade Dynamite - Lorde
Significance: The lyrics (such as “I think that you might be the same as me, behave abnormally”) convey that Celia has created a somewhat idealized image of Ethan in her head, and is shocked to find that he has traits that do not align with her version of him she created in her head.


ETHAN NEELU:

The protagonist of my short film is named Ethan Neelu. I chose this name because the first name, Ethan, means “hidden strength” which I thought represented the character pretty well. Ethan is pretty soft spoken but has the ability to defend himself buried deep down. The name “Neelu” means a depressing, dark colored blue, which I also thought fit the character pretty well, as I picture him being a blue-themed character. This is a juxtaposition from Celia. He is a mixed race teenage boy with dark hair and eyes, average build, and tall stature. He is quiet and reserved, with a tendency to keep his thoughts to himself. I want his personality throughout the film to be generally kept contained, until the very end of the scene where he snaps at Celia. For his wardrobe, I want to use neutral, darker colors, such as gray, with dark blues scattered throughout. This represents his sadness and shyness. He will be wearing black accessories and glasses, as black is the color of secrecy. His pop of color will be white, to convey that his intentions are innocent and he is a good person. His hair is going to be curly yet maintained, to show that he has a strong sense of self control. His makeup will not really be noticeable, but broody. 

PORTRAIT


COLOR PALETTE:

Here is this character’s color palette.




PLAYLIST

Here are some songs that remind me of this character.

What Once Was - Her’s
Significance: The lyrics (such as “I was at the point where all I really wanted was someone, and now I'm still hanging on”) represent Ethan’s struggles with depression pretty well, as well as explains why he is still friends with Celia, someone who treats him poorly.

Young - Vacations
Significance: The lyrics (such as “didn't think I'd still be here, just to make things clear”) show that Ethan sometimes does not think straight when he makes certain decisions due to his depression, such as writing the suicide note.

YKWIM? - Yot Club
Significance: The lyrics (such as “it seems like I care too much, when I'm all alone”) convey that Ethan knows he cares more for Celia than she cares for him, and that plays a hand in fueling his depression. 

Dark Red - Steve Lacy
Significance: The lyrics (such as “something bad is 'about to happen to me, I don't know it, but I feel it coming”) represent the character’s uneasiness in the start of the scene when Celia finds the letter. 

Hit Me Where It Hurts - Caroline Polachek
Significance: The lyrics (such as “go on and hit me in the heart, hit me where it hurts”) is a good match for the scene where Ethan snaps at Celia for her toxic reaction to finding the note. 

New Person, Same Old Mistakes - Tame Impala
Significance: The lyrics (such as “I can just hear them now: how could you let us down?" represent his anxiety about what Celia thinks of him, even in situations where he should be putting himself first. 

Monday, March 14, 2022

Group Meeting!

This group meeting proved to be very, very helpful.

First of all, for my script, I learned I can use celtx. So that's pretty cool, because now I don't have to manually format all of my writing. I also got the idea to split up my name for the credits. 

Anyway, I explained to my group that I absolutely did not like my idea and had been procrastinating trying to fix the plot. Luckily, everyone in my group is really creative, so they helped me tweak the plot into something I would actually enjoy writing about.

One of my group members suggest that I change my character from writing a poem to writing a suicide note. I liked it! It added something new and dynamic to what I believed to be a pretty stale plot.

The next issue we ran into was trying to determine how the other character would even come across the note in the first place. From there, I then decided to change my idea from a character reading a poem to two characters hanging out in a room, where one comes across the other's suicide note (pressures the main character into showing them) and acts in a toxic manner, getting angry and yelling. 



Cool Group Photo :D

Thursday, March 10, 2022

Rough Draft: Scene One Script!

"MAIN CHARACTER: I never really understood what it was about him that entranced me from the start. Whenever people would ask, I always pinned it on how charismatic he was; how he could light up a room with a joke. He was fun-loving and care-free, and that was good enough for me.


Looking back now, I know the real answer: I was desperate for attention, enough to disregard flags so red they would attract every bull in a fifty mile radius. Of course, I would never admit that to anyone. Not in a million years.


I know, I know: I’m kind of to blame here. But, to be fair, most naive teenagers just get their heart broken and move on after a week. I, on the other hand, got dragged through rusty nail infested mud for most of my highschool career.


When we first started talking, I felt a connection I had never felt before. Someone who truly cared about me, enough to tell me like it is. No more dancing around the truth, selling lies. I had my insecurities, and he confirmed them. As it should be. 


Or so I thought.


The first time I noticed something was off was very early on, actually. 


You see, I poured my heart and soul out in a lovely little poem. It was quite nice. And what did he do? Well… [cut to scene 2]"



That was the draft of my script! I actually do not like it at all, besides the beginning. I am planning on asking for a lot of feedback from everyone around me as I develop the script more, as I feel the tone of the script is not consistent. Is the main character trying to be funny? Sarcastic? Serious? Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. Hopefully as I ask for people's opinions, they tell me what they like and don't like so I can improve.

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Storyboard Final Draft!

Y'all, my drawings aren't as bad this time! Hoorah! 




The most difficult part about this for sure was having a very clear image of what I wanted in my head and not being able to replicate it because my drawings skills are quite bad. I looked up some references but they didn't seem to help. At least it's easy to get the general gist of what I'm going for!

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Bad News, Good News

The bad news? My actress for my main character cancelled for this entire weekend due to a family emergency. We are now filming the week before spring break after school and our backup dates are during spring break weekdays. 

The good news? More time to work on developing my characters and script!

Quick update on my production process: I am stressed. I have so many ideas with little idea on how I would execute them with my skill level and available equipment. I am also finding it quite difficult to settle with my idea because, personally, I am not a big fan of what I have so far.

You see, it feels incomplete. I feel like I have lost sight of the message I wanted to give through my film. There's nothing about my plot that makes me go "Wow, I actually kind of nailed this assignment." Instead, I can picture my film being average and everyone forgetting about it immediately. 

To fix how I feel about the project, I've decided I'm going to make my antagonist more manipulative instead of straightforward. I want my main character to question their intentions and fall for their words numerous times during their voiceover, even more so than before. I want the confusion that comes with being manipulated my main theme.

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Storyboard - First Scene Rough Draft

Here is part of my storyboard for the upcoming portfolio project. 


I am terrible at drawing but once I finalize my ideas I will expand upon the initial paper and also draw in more detail to each image.

Saturday, March 5, 2022

Meeting During Class

The entire week, I have not been able to meet often with my teacher. There have been some complications for me, as this week on both Wednesday and Friday I have been absent from school. Although there is not much that needed to be discussed, I did miss out on valuable time that I could've put towards the project. I have been struggling to find the time to indulge fully in this project to the extent that I would like. Compounded by a lack of time, I am also experiencing a lot of distress in my personal life that has thrown me off from being able to brainstorm as well as usual. Additionally, one of my actors is in the process of being transferred from one school to another and it is very difficult to find time to film. 

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. During my only meeting in class, I discussed how I felt quite stuck with the whole situation and how the topics I wanted to do were a little too difficult to portray. We also discussed how it would probably be better for me to combine two things I am interested in: writing and the portrayal of abuse. My teacher told me that my blog posts were well-written, and that all I need to improve upon is figuring out exactly what I am going for in terms of my story. This week, I hope to meet with her and discuss my outline.

Critical Reflection

My documentary package, Courageous Creativity, focuses on queer artists. I did a lot of research in and out of class in order to create my p...