Re-Scouting

     Sooo my excitement to continue filming was brutally killed. The room in my house I was filming the majority in is my sisters room. However, my sister tested positive for Covid. Just when I thought this pandemic was done interfering with my life, my family got Covid for the first time. My dad and I are the only ones who did not get it so we are isolating with family. 

    With this being said, I had to look for other places to shoot. Nowhere in the house we're staying at would even be able to pass as a filming location for my film, so I started reaching out to a few friends to see if I could use their room. I ended up just deciding to wait.

    For now, I wanted to get as many things out of the way that I could because I feel like I'm running out of time. I began to research music for the opening and I made a large list that I will share once we dig deeper in post-production so I can see the footage first. I also got a ring light for the props in the room and confirmed a good time to film at the gym next week.

   

    All of these setbacks have been very stressful and I feel like I have no time left. I am just trying to push through for now and I think that once I get the filming out of the way, everything will be smooth sailing. 

Script

     Since I decided dialogue was needed in my opening, I needed to create a script. The part where Stella is on the phone with her best friend is the only part I needed it for so I figured it would be an easy task. However, I was mistaken. 

    I had to start by thinking of a reason that her friend could've called her. To stay on track, I made her call with the intention of reassuring Stella after seeing her rude comments. I also had to think of a personality for the friend to put behind these words. Since Stella is a confident and strong woman, I would expect her to have friends with the same mindset and goals. So I created Liz, her genius best friend that's always there to support her.

    In the script, Liz instantly tries to cheer Stella up by encouraging to do what she loves: going to the gym. She decides she is right and needs to continue to make content to prove the people wrong. This will lead into the next part of my plot where Stella gets ready for the gym and drives away (Which is where the scene will end). 

    It's crazy how important dialogue is to connect different concepts and make a clearer idea. Before doing this step I felt like I had a great idea, just with no structure. I'm so excited because now I am ready to start filming!

Acting

     As all my ideas were flowing I failed to think of one question... Who's going to act in my opening? I thought so much about my made up character that I forgot I actually have to bring her to life. 

    It's easy to just ask any friend to help out and be the character, but it also makes you take the chance of them being terrible or not doing things exactly how you envision. With that being said, I considered a few of my friends that I know would take it seriously. However, I ended up deciding to just act in my own film. This way I won't have to worry about explaining my thought process to someone else. 

    Acting in my own piece does pose one problem though. Having to direct and act at the same time. This means I will have to guide whoever is filming for me and explain the exact shots and composition that I am going for, without actually being behind the camera for the most part. Although it will be a challenge, I think it will end up working out for the better. 

    Wrapping up this week with a much more in depth plan is very comforting. I plan to start filming next week and I can't wait to bring you guys along with me through the process! 

Film Locations

    Now that I more or less had a story board, I needed to start finding where I’m going to film. This week I focused mostly on film locations, props, and really everything to do with mise-en-scene. I made collages to plan how I imagine the film locations to be structured:

    I decided on her bedroom being pink to give her that feminine and approachable vibe that influencers go for. I also think that adding the ring light and laptop with editing software will get the point across that she is an influencer. The last element I wanted to make sure was in her bedroom was her gym bag to also show her fitness side. I plan on using a bedroom in my house the already has light pink walls so that way all I need to do is add the props.

    The gym is pretty self-explanatory, but I like the light trendy style of it. I will use my families gym as I will be able to film after hours and make sure there's not too many people. Depending on the timing I don't think she will be shown much in the gym during the opening, so I may just need to shoot in here for when she's editing the footage on her laptop. 

Revision

     So I wanted to start filming early this week, but as I was looking over my plans and storyboards I felt like something was missing. I just didn't know where to go next or how to add to my story. I decided to just re-storyboard the entire opening. 

    In my previous storyboard that I started, it began with her coming home from the gym. However, after thinking about it more I felt that it would set the idea better if she starts by looking at the mean comments and then uses it as motivation to go to the gym. I also thought more about how to introduce her love interest since the wave from across the street was kinda vague. I think it would be cool if shes getting several comments from the same account, and that person turns out to be her love interest. 

    As you can see from the first couple of frames, I changed the phone to a laptop so that she can switch from looking at the comments to editing her fitness videos. This way the audience can tell right away that she is a fitness influencer. 

    Another addition I made is having her get a phone call from her friend. I felt that it needed some dialogue to sort of explain things to a deeper extent, but to make it easier so I don't have to add an actor, I thought talking on the phone would be a good way to do so. 

Fonts

    There are way too many fonts to choose from. I feel like I've looked at 20 different fonts that are the exact same, just with different names. 

     I want to do something that shows the girly, light-hearted side to the film so that it sets the tone right away. I've been browsing through the Adobe font library which actually has such a great variety of fonts. It breaks them into different categories like friendly, clean, rough, etc. I looked under the fun category for the light-hearted aesthetic. I finally brought it down to two fonts:

    They both match the theme I'm going for so it just came down to which one was more feminine and simple enough for the opening credits and title. I also looked at both fonts in just a plain black text and the same size so I could do a better comparison. 

    I decided Chill Script would be the best fit for the film opening due to the subtle cursive writing for the more feminine touch, but still bubbly big letters to match the vibe. I was also able to confirm that it looked good in pink since that's the color I am planning to do the title and credits in. 

    This week has been a very productive week and I feel so much more progress now that I have the outline of my plot, the title, font, and other stylistic choices all figured out. 

First Group Meeting

    Today we had our first group meeting. I don't usually work on projects on my own, so it was refreshing to talk to others and learn about their different creative processes. We started by sharing our blogs one by one and explaining the concept of our film. We then gave each other feedback and tried to help each other with things we were stuck on.

     Personally, I needed help with my title and credits so everyone started bouncing off ideas. I knew that I wanted it to be related to the gym, so we started thinking about puns. I jotted down some ideas and finally decided on Worth the Weight. It portrays her journey of becoming a successful fitness influencer after overcoming the obstacles of stereotypes. 

    I also decided on the credits being pink, but I have yet to decide what font will fit the theme best. I plan to do some research on that some time this week so I can have most of the stylistic choices set.