Production shots/Post-production editing

 PRODUCTION SHOTS / POST-PRODUCTION EDITING

Coloring

As Steve awakens, the shot seems hazy and slightly distorted. In addition to this, Steve is overexposed and appears a lot paler than he actually is. This was done to open up the film and create confusion in our audience as to who this person may be and why he is waking up in such a daze. This daze is reflected throughout his beginning stumbles and the odd combination of overexposed colors and bright green grass and trees. As he runs into Dainty and begins to converse with her, this coloring stays and continues as we get closer to Dainty. These harsh colors go away the moment Maria comes into the story because it is no longer this one-on-one intimate conversation between Dainty and Steve. All of this was created using Adobe Premier.

Editing

The cuts between credits and shots are quick-paced in the beginning to symbolize the distress that Steve is going through once he first wakes up. The opacity gets changed when he starts walking around to illustrate his dizziness and nausea. As he meets Dainty, the cutting between their speaking doesn’t sync up entirely to what is shown on the screen, showing a more flowing conversation between the two. Once Maria came into the scene, the shots were not as quick as before and began to focus more only on Maria and Steve’s argument. All of this was edited using Adobe Premier and graphics through Adobe After Effects.

Shots

The shots for this were done in a POV perspective instead of over the shoulder to make the watcher feel uneasy and almost uncomfortable with the direct eye contact. Dainty’s show is also closer than Steve’s to accentuate her features and highlight how young she’s supposed to look. This shot was also done at a higher angle. Even though Steve and Dainty do have a significant height difference in real life, we wanted to emphasize how much smaller Dainty was, causing her to have to look up at him. The same was done vice versa for Steve, having the camera at a lower angle, forcing him to look farther down than Dainty really was. His shot was not shot as close because we wanted him to appear much larger and dominant over her. Once Maria is entered into the conversation, the shots change to side angles of the characters, no longer the POV shots. The interaction is no longer intimate and is now beginning to get loud, so the wider shots help create this environment.

Final location and setting decisions

 FINAL LOCATION AND SETTING DECISIONS

Even though our past conflicts, we kept going back and forth with the idea of going forward with the white room in the end. We asked a friend if we could borrow their living room since it is fully white, but in the end, it didn’t fit our vision. Next, we asked another friend if her living room would be available to us, but she was already using it to film her project. Finally, we came to the resolution of using the woods, but a different section of it. 

In a previous film of ours, we used this patch of woods near our city that had a long field of grass in front. Before, we had used the backside of these trees that were farther away from the park itself, but on the other side was also the highway. This would have ruined our audio and given away the “isolation” aspect we were striving for, it would be completely ruined by the obvious presence of other life forms. For this reason, we filmed in front of the trees, instead of behind. The field seemed way more open this way, creating our pod of isolation for our main character. Not only were the grass fields neverending, but the trees were incredibly tall, giving us the advantage of getting far enough shots, without losing the illusion of him being in an inescapable location. 

The trees behind us did not appear to be the average oak tree most people see in their neighborhoods. The branches and leaves they had hanging over them seemed very out of place with the rest of the surrounding trees. Because of this, we chose a secluded section of trees to film in front of to make it seem like there was a long line of these trees than there actually was. We angled our shots in a way that expanded this horizon.

Equipment Update

 EQUIPMENT UPDATE

Our group has easy access to a free equipment rental service called ShortCuts TV that lends equipment to student filmmakers. Our team didn’t think that lots of students were aware of this company, so we didn’t believe that there would be any line when it came to getting the equipment we wanted. However, to our disbelief, there ended up being a shortage over spring break, since everyone had the same mindset as we did. We have come to the conclusion that we will probably end up using the cameras, light kits, tripods, etc. that our school provides since we know it is not currently out of stock. We have the right types of cameras and products to make our film. On top of that, we will be filming outdoors during sunlight, so we don't need any type of fancy lighting. 

Now that spring break is over, we are hoping that there is still a chance to get equipment from ShortCuts. There are a ton of students now returning everything they used, leaving more for us. Even if this is not a possibility, we still have our other backup plan.

Adjustment to the character Dainty

 ADJUSTMENTS TO CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

My group has come to the conclusion that recasting my character is not in our best interest when considering how that might affect our filming schedule and chemistry as a cast. To adjust to my injury, there had to be some adjustments to Dainty.

Appearance

Since I am now required to wear a removable black cast on my right arm, Virginia wrote into the script that my character would wear this, but not just for the convenience of it. Since Dainty had to go through so much emotional abuse because of Steve, there was a sense of damage to her childhood and her innocence. The cast would be able to symbolize this to our audiences since it is never verbally explained in just the opening. If the film were to have been extended, we would go into depth with the history of Dainty and Steve as her babysitter and what he did to her growing up. This type of fix to our opening night actually will be beneficial, since we aren’t creating a longer film, it will add that essence of pain and suffering through Dainty’s character that isn’t fully represented in our script.

Some more bad news

 SOME MORE BAD NEWS

My group decided that we would continue as planned to film this week since we are on spring break. I had my wrist surgery scheduled for the Monday following, so filming that Sunday seemed like our best option. The only plan my family had was to tour Gainesville since I will be going to college at the University of Florida and needed to tour apartments for only two days. We were planning on filming by the time I got back, however, events took a turn for the worse. On my drive home, I got a call from the emergency room requesting I head to the hospital for emergency surgery on my wrist. I was kept overnight at the hospital and had the surgery the next day. This extended my out-of-town visit for an additional two days, putting my teammates on edge about when we would have the opportunity to film. I had presumed that once I was out of surgery, we would be able to film. Unfortunately, my doctor gave me direct orders of bed rest for the rest of the weekend.

How we plan to fix this

We have decided that there is not much going on our first week back from spring break, so we will find some time during the day to film. Our opening scene does not require more than a few hours of filming, so this can easily be accomplished. I believe in the efforts of my group to accomplish this and have no doubt we can get the job done on time.

Costume Shopping

 COSTUME SHOPPING

Steve

The articles of Steve’s costume can probably be something that Kai already owns. Since he is in debate, he has had to dress up in a suit or some type of formal attire in the past which means he would have the type of costume Steve needs. If this is not the case, there is a chance he can ask one of his friends that resemble his height and size to borrow an old suit for a day. If this is not possible, our last resort is to buy it at Goodwill, since they have a whole section dedicated to suits and formal wear. The only reason we would not want to take this approach first is that we are not certain Goodwill will have exactly what we’re looking for in his size since it is a thrift store.

Dainty

Dainty will require a visit to a children’s store that sells clothing extra-large. This could either be The Children’s Place or Target. Our best bet would probably be Walmart in the end, since their clothing is going to be the cheapest and does sell children’s attire in large sizes that would fit a double zero 18-year-old. Recently, I had to purchase a dress for a play and bought it at Walmart, unaware that I had wandered into the children’s section. It was a bit tight on me but did the job. If all else fails, we will go to Goodwill for this as well or I will ask my 14-year-old sister to lend me some clothes. The only problem with my sister's clothes is that Dainty is supposed to be a very young little girl and my sister’s closet has already exceeded a mature enough level to not pull off as childish.

Maria

Maria’s costume will be the easiest to find, considering our group consists of two Hispanic girls who have plenty of clothing to choose from. If neither of us can find mature enough clothing, my mother would be more than happy to lend something from her closet. Because of this, there is a guarantee we will not need to go shopping for any of Maria’s attire.

Finalized Graphics

                                 GRAPHICS FINALIZED

Since Virginia is very skilled with Adobe After Effects and had the clearest vision of what our opening credits should look like. She had the idea of having a few letters upside down or reflected to make it seem more creepy and off-putting. Here is what we have so far.

We chose to have the Steve title be black letters on white instead of white letters on black to stand out from the rest of the title screen. We also experimented with flipping one of the letters for Steve, but it looked more strange to the eye than we had liked, so we decided to leave all the letters the same.

Unfortunate Situation

 UNFORTUNATE SITUATION

Sadly, this past Tuesday, March 15, I was involved in a severe car accident. I was sent to the hospital for a broken wrist and an injured leg. Currently, I am in a temporary cast and a wrapped leg awaiting surgery this coming Tuesday, March 22nd for my wrist. Because of this, I have very minimal motion in my arm and I have a slight limp when I walk.

My group has to ask ourselves some important questions as to how we are going to move forward with our project. Since I was an actor in our film for the convenience of filming, will we move forward with that idea or try to find someone to fill my spot? Would it be better to find someone more suitable and have me stay home for filming day? Would my characters being injured add to the story? Should we just not show my arm or leg in any shots? My cast is removable so could I possibly just remove it for the scene and have my character just not move? As this next week blows over, hopefully, we will be able to come to a conclusion on the best solution to these problems.

Editing software and graphics

 EDITING SOFTWARE AND GRAPHICS

Software

Virginia and I have been doing editing and television production for a while, so we are both familiar with Adobe software and how it works. Funny enough, I am certified in Adobe  2018 Photoshop and Premier, meaning I’m very familiar with the tools and aspects of the software. I’m unsure of what Virginia is certified in, but based on seeing her past work, I know that she is also skilled with this technology. 

Graphics

One thing that she knows how to use that I don’t is Adobe After Effects. I have only used it once for a project and it took me ages to do, while Virginia can create graphics in just minutes. For our opening, we are planning on having the letters of our names and the titles big and bold. Additionally, to create the creepy and out-of-place nature of our opening, a few of the letters of our name will be crooked or reflected. We’re doing this so that all names and positions will still be legible and clear, but still confusing and mysterious. 

Editing

The video’s editing will be fast-paced up until the other characters are introduced. As the clips go back and forth to Steve awakening and going into panic with where he has awoken, the graphics will appear at random in between quick and bold. This will cause tension and suspense throughout the beginning of our video. Once Dainty is introduced, the cuts will get slower to formally introduce her and have more focus on who this mysterious figure must be. From that point the edits will stay smooth until Maria is introduced, bringing back that hectic energy. All the cuts made will reflect the tone of the scene so that the audience can feel the same type of anxiety that Steve is feeling.

Casting Choices

 

REASONS FOR CASTING 

Steve

We are casting Kai as Steve for the most obvious reason: he’s the only male. He is also a tall, white-looking male who is around 6 feet tall. His height makes him seem a lot more dominant than other men, which is exactly the type of look we want so he seems intimidating to Dainty and Maria. One aspect we would have enjoyed having was someone with more muscle to add on to this dominant feature, but it can be worked around. There are types of makeup we could apply to his face to give him a more chiseled jawline and facial structure, making him appear older and more mature. With the correct costume design, we can really bring the character Steve to life through Kai.

Pictured to the right with a gray jacket

Dainty

I was cast as Dainty because, even as the oldest, I look the youngest. I still have a baby face and my whole physique is not very mature. I have younger-looking features which would allow me to pull off the character of Dainty. Not only do I look like the character, but I also have a much higher-pitched voice than most people my age, which is something that lots of people point out about me or imitate. I tend to wear lots of oversized clothing, giving me this more childish and small look. Even if the costume will not be oversized, it will still fall on me in a way that would make me appear like a child.

Maria

Virginia will play Maria because she has experience with very dramatic acting and has a Hispanic accent. She has a very powerful way of saying her lines and would captivate the hectic nature of Maria perfectly. She is more mature looking for her age, making it easier to pretend she is a lot older than me, when in reality I’m 18 and she’s 16. We will probably give her more tight-fit clothing that still seems worn out so that the curves of her body will be more noticeable to enhance her mature look.

We chose to only use members of our group since it would be way more convenient for filming. All of us are capable of acting and will be at every shoot, so there was no need to get extra actors and make the schedule for filming more complicated than it needed to be.

Location Change

                              POSSIBLE CHANGE IN SETTING

As we have done further research on our location, we have come across a few questions we have yet to find a way to answer. 

The vision we had of the white room was solid walls, ground, and ceiling. To find an actual set like this is rare, none of us have a bedroom or a room in our homes that fit this description. If we were to use one of our homes that happened to have white walls, it still would not fit our vibe, since we want the room to feel obsolete and any splash of color or texture would ruin that. Our friend Kimberly has a house that has fairly plain walls, but it is too open, ruining the excluded, isolated, claustrophobic environment we are shooting for. Kai had recommended that we purchase those backgrounds that photographers use and make a background in that way.

 As simple as a solution this may be, it won’t look realistic to be a room and will look very artificial, which is not what we are going for. We want to make the room feel almost as eerie as the never-ending hallways that people have said to see in their dreams that feel oddly familiar to all people. 

We want our characters to feel like they are in an inescapable location, with no exit in sight. To combat this, we have come to terms with switching up our location to somewhere else that could still give this mysterious look. We have worked in these secluded woods by the side of the highway for some of our past films about a kidnapping. For that film, we also wanted there to be a place that was entirely isolated, since the kidnapping that would soon be murdered was more suspenseful and scary. We have considered this to be an alternate location because it is very secluded and there is a giant patch of grass that is surrounded by trees that we could symbolize as “walls.” This location is also very close to where we live, so filming would be very convenient for us.

Character Looks/Inspiration

                           CHARACTER LOOK / INSPIRATION

Steve Inspiration

                                

The character that would best relate to Steve’s personality would be Jordan Belfort from the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The money-hungry businessman agenda that blocks out all other people around them is exactly the type of personality we are trying to create with our lead.

Steve Look

His costume would consist of either a suit like the ones exhibited above or other wealthy appearing garments. This could range from designer items from Gucci or Louis Viton or a full black outfit to emphasize his evil aura. The outfits symbolize power, wealth, and social status. The greedy nature that comes from these materialistic items is what causes men like Steve to treat others in such a vile nature for them to basically wish death upon him. His narcissistic attitude must be apparent through this look so the audience gets a clear picture that the man may be Steve from the moment they see him, even though Steve might not understand it’s him.

Dainty Inspiration

For this character, it is not as related to the actual personality or backstory to the inspiring character, but more of their look and behavior. Dainty related highly to Moaning Myrtle from “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” She is an aged woman stuck in the body of a child, as shown through her uniform and the way she does her hair. These characteristics project a sense of purity and innocence, but also damage. The older age-matched with the adolescent attire creates an uneasy setting, having the audience sit in suspense until this mystery is explained.

Dainty Look

She will have her hair in some sort of childlike styles, such as pigtails, braids, a ribbon, etc. This will help illustrate that it isn’t just a clothing choice, but a whole character personality look. The dress will look like it came out of the children’s section for Children’s Place and contain vibrant colors and patterns. This is what’s going to build the narrative of her being stuck in this traumatic child state from what had happened to her as a child.

Maria Inspiration 

The inspiration for Maria would be Joyce Byers from the T.V. show “Stranger Things” for her hectic and exhausted look. She has a very motherly look, but also like she hasn’t slept a day in her life. The eye bags under her eyes have to be exaggerated and her hair must be in a mess. Joyce goes through a lot of overstimulating situations that put her in a state of panic and distress throughout the show.

Maria Looks

Maria would have a very average housewife outfit, but not too rich like her husband. She would seem not as wealthy and have a more humble appearance. Her clothing would also have stains or holes that would insinuate that she stays home with the kids and takes on more of the hit of parenthood than Steve ever did.

Script Rough Draft

 SCRIPT ROUGH DRAFT

Here is a rough draft of our script.

STEVE

Gasping(V.O)

White screen. Credits show up. Everyone’s names have an individual panel. They are in large capital letters that take up the whole screen. Everyone’s last names are upside down.

Cut to:

Int- White Room. Day

A boy of ambiguous age sits in a white room. He looks straight at the camera. He breathes heavily but looks completely numb as if he has just woken up from surgery. He knows not what is happening, or where he is, or who he is, but he seems relaxed, in context. His eyes glisten as the bright white of the room reflects off them. He looks in front of him and sees a door.

The man stands up and walks up to the door, trying to open it but failing. He does not seem very nervous about this. He turns around and sees something that startles him.

A girl is standing in front of him

This girl is about 17 years old. She looks exhausted and messy, yet she is wearing childish clothing and is holding a lollypop. She looks like an adult dressed up as a child.

DAINTY

Hello

MAN

Good morning

DAINTY

How do you know it’s morning?

MAN

My internal clock

DAINTY

Oh. So, good morning then. I’m Dainty. That’s D-A-I-N-T-Y

MAN

Hi. My name is-

(He thinks)

Those clothes are too small for you. Why are you dressed like this?

DAINTY

I’m a little girl. I wear little girl clothes made for little girls who fit into little clothes.

MAN

You sure look pretty in them.

Dainty sighs and her eyes widen. This goes on for a couple of seconds.

DAINTY

Sir. Can you help me find Steve?

Beat

Black screen. Loud music plays over our title screen. Instruments are out of sync and loud. The word “STEVE” shows up over this black in large capital letters. Some letters are flipped. This is very short, as to not allow the music to have a definitive ending, just a harsh cut.

Cut to:

Dainty’s face. She is looking at the man expecting an answer.

MAN

Is Steve your dad?

DAINTY

Why would I call my dad by his name?

MAN

(He scoffs.)

You're cynical.

DAINTY

Ok

MAN

I like that. Shows you're smart.

DAINTY

Steve is my babysitter

MAN

Why do you need to find him? Does he owe you money or somethin’?

DAINTY

Sir, I am going to kill Steve.

Beat

Man is pensive.

MAN

Why?

DAINTY

Steve hurt me. He stole from me.

MAN

Fine. I suppose there is nothing left for me to do. Where did you last see him?

Pan to left:

A woman is seen. She looks EXHAUSTED. Her name is Maria. She is crying.

MARIA

In my f@cking house. With a wh0re.

MAN

Watch your language.

MARIA

Watch my language? YOU watch your language. He is lucky I did not put a bullet in his head the moment I saw that bastard with that fake-blonde-trash-bitch-

MAN

Can you stop acting like a psycho?

MARIA

WHAT??-

DAINTY

Maria is married to Steve. We’re both looking for him.

MARIA

That little rat is always escaping from his problems. I’m going to kill him this time. I swear on our three f@#$ing children, the ones he supposedly cares about, I’m going to kill him. D, is this man going to help us?

DAINTY

Yep

MAN

NO!

Beat.

Wide-angle shows all three.

MAN

You know what, I get it he is kind of a douche, but I mean, stealing is not that big of a deal. And oh, come on lady

MARIA

WHAT?

MAN

You’re a psycho. Any man would do anything to get away from you.