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.