Actors, settings, and objects

My my... Getting an actor for this short was complicated. First I asked my younger step sibling to act as Jack but he denied... He's shy :(. However, the original person I had asked to act in my short actually accepted... He asked his family and they are okay with it, (he's an actual actor... he does professional theatre). However, we have to take the health and safety measures very serious. We have both been in quarantine so it is safe. We just have to be very very careful because we both live with elderly people... His name is Gianni and he will be playing Jack in my short. I told him I would pay him since that will be his career but he denied because I'm his friend. (Don't tell him but I'm still going to pay him, it's a huge favor he is doing for me).

However, I still found myself needing a guy's room so I can shoot where he wakes up in, and he said it is okay to use his room, so that's great! I will have to take the objects to his house and place them in his room. Because it will be his room, I still don't know if I will be able to make his room look empty (I don't think he will want to empty out his room). So I will have to see what I can do.

I have decided to use the forest in my neighborhood for the location of the pawn shop. I have a tapestry to use for the floor, a plastic table, and all the objects on top. I am still debating whether to use my cat or not as the store clerk, I will see about that.

I will start shooting this week.

I am thinking of using myself as the girl actress in the last scene because the only person I know my age is my step-sister but... I don't think she will act for me, she's very busy.
I still have to figure out some stuff: The weather can change and how will I make my cat act???

Talking about that, I asked my classmates about the cat idea and they liked in. Ana recommended I watch "What Did Jack Do?" by David Lynch on Netflix. It's about an investigator interrogating a monkey about a crime. It gave me confidence in using my cat as the actor, however I don't have the technology or the skill to animate the mouth, so I will have to use subtitles.

I will also have to figure out the setting for the bar or restaurant... I am thinking of using my dog as the waiter and using another outside location... Abstract right?? I guess you can say the workers in my short film world are all animals haha. I will think about it more.
I will also have to find some baseball cards.
On another note, if using pets is too complicated, I can easily use my mom and mom's boyfriend as the characters.
Here is the updated script (I had to make some changes cuz you know.... corona).

I CHANGED MY MIND

OKAY SO

I HAVE DECIDED TO STICK WITH MY STORY.

After thinking for a while about how I can make this story about coronavirus and the psychological effects, I have decided I don't want to do that.

It would be a completely new story make up with a lot of thinking. My previous story took me weeks to figure out. Also, I remember Yejin suggesting me to mimic the setting within my house. I thought about it and my thoughts went even further. I thought "Woah, this film could be an abstract one."
My obvious reasons for not doing it how I was going to do it are for the virus, but this can make me get more creative.

To have one thing in mind is that I live with 7 there people. This is really good because I can use people as actors. I live with my mom, my mom's boyfriend, his three kids, his mom, and his mom's husband (it's not his dad). Instead of using a guy around the age from 20-28 for Jack, I can use my little step brother. Instead of making this story about an adult who wants to buy something for a girl, I could make it about a 14 year old that wants to buy something for a girl. Cute, right? Instead of having an actual pawn shop, I thought about having my cat act as the pawn shop owner (this is where it gets experimental). I had a vision of my cat sitting there with a bunch of objects, and it all being in my backyard. The pawn shop is outside and my cat is the owner/seller. I was thinking of having my young step-brother talk to my cat and my cat answer in subtitles... Even though the pawn shop is in my backyard, I'm not going to show that. I'm going to make it seem like its a few blocks away from "Jacks" (my) house. This way I can still implement the scenes where Jack is running. However, it challenges the scene where he goes IN the pawn shop... Where would he go in in my story if it's the same house? The only way to do that would be to use another house as reference, and I'm sure none of my neighbors want me going or being in their front porch (get away corona). So I will have to figure that one out later.
Ty (my young step-sibling), rides his bike everywhere and I could have the option of him either running or riding his bike, I'll see.

Wait. I just realized my neighborhood has an area with a big patch of grass and some bushes and trees. Maybe that can be the "pawn shop". YAY I like how this is comping out. It's more experimental which I love :)))))))

I can have both my cat and my dog. I will have to train them to stay seating in their area, and even if that's hard I will get it done to get shots of the animals.

If having them outside will be a problem I can try to do the "pawn shop" in my dining room. I will think about it and talk to my mom about it.
The only problem is if I use my cat or dog, then there's no one acting it and I really wanted someone to act the pawn shop clerk... But I don't know if anyone in my family is fit for that role, and even if they were, how I  can make it good.

Blessing in Disguise

Alright,

This covid-19 isn't stopping me from doing my short film. One way or another I will make a short film. Possibly not the one I already wrote, or that one but alternated, or I can just come up with a whole new story.
It's very annoying to change the story because I already had mine very planned out and envisioned.

I'm currently thinking....

Every time I type a few minutes pass....

I think I want to make the short about the psychological and societal effects coronavirus caused, but more in a positive way.

I personally feel that these days, I am the happiest I have been in a very very long time.

And it's crazy ironic because can you believe I wasn't really enjoying my life all that much before this? I was always stressed, tired, anxious, behind.... It was a repeated cycle because I felt that life was going on too fast. I needed some time for myself to really grow and think about my life and how I am being... The habits I have that I can improve, my goals, my passions.... Who I am.

And I'm sitting here wondering if this blessing of a realization came from all the meditation (because I have so much time on my hands now), or was it going to happen even if Coronavirus never happened. I feel blessed because I remember feeling very happy, confident, and certain about my life before high school. I did grow a little in high school as a person, but I feel like I was stuck for a while. I saw everyone else growing and discovering who they were, and I had no clue. I am just now realizing who I am and what I love. I'm just now learning to be confident, not care what other people think, and really care about myself in general. That was my problem before. I didn't care for some reason. I didn't care about anything. I stopped caring when I lost hope for the world and thought there was no hope in ever being happy.

However I realize now that I am in CONTROL of my life. I'm so happy. It's a beautiful think to understand who you are and love yourself simultaneously.

This is definitely helping me more confident in my work, or art work in general. The other day I freestyled a painting just trusting in myself. And I really like the outcome.

This whole thing is really freaky to me... Something historic is happening in my life. Although it's not the biggest deal (it's not WW2 or Hiroshima), it's still something that affected society and our views on things.

I want to make a short film about a girl who learns to be happy again. Hoping it's not a bad idea, I will try my best to work hard on this story to truly make it good. I wish I could film anywhere... I love using different settings in film!!! However, this is a challenge that I will have to face. I'll have to make a bad ass short film using only my house and my family because I am doing this project in the middle of a damn pandemic.


Much love,

Mariana

Changes- David Bowie

Ch-ch-ch-ch-chANGES!!!

UGH.

I have to change my project.

Changes have been done. No more Cambridge exam. Short film is still on. Quarantine is still on.

My current story requires settings and characters that are currently not available due to the whole coronavirus/quarantine situation.

Lately I have been watching a lot of movies that could help inspire my new direction. I am now limited to my house, my neighborhood, and nature for my settings. However, for my actors, I am limited to my family members, and maybe some friends willing to help me, although that wouldn't be the best idea #socialdistancing.

I still haven't sat down to think deeply about how I will change my story in terms of plot, but I do have some other factors I would have to focus on more. Light, music, camera movement, are a few examples of things I should focus on more deeply now.

I think I would have to incorporate slower scenes and less dialogue for my short film. This would make my short film more dramatic... And I don't know if I want to do that since my previous idea was more lenient to more of a humorous "drama". I was going to use a very good actor that is able to make the character humorous in a successful way. Now I will have to use my family members (they're not very good actors, except my dad, but I don't live with him).

I have to think about the story, the genre, and the purpose of the story all over again. I will write again when I have thought this more thoroughly as of right now I am in a conundrum...

However, these are some films I have watched recently that have made me think about slower/home filming in which I could see myself doing.

The slowness of the Florida Project and how the whole film is mostly in one setting.

The slowness and cinematography of Midsommar.

Storyboard... Kind of ?

 Here is the storyboard I was in the middle of working on... I did not finish the whole storyboard because as I was working on it, I realized this story is going to be impossible to do at the actual stores and bars concerning this whole coronavirus thing... I will either have to completely change my story to something else, or adapt the current one to a house setting.

Here's my Script!

I know I know... I am a slow thinker! I am a perfectionist!
I have some doubts about this script because I am scared it is too long for 5-6 minutes. I am very scared of that because I spent a long time writing it and coming up with the story.

Here it is:

I feel like I wrote a whole episode for a 45 minute TV series. I am also hesitant on all the different locations I have chosen and the amount of people in my short film. Will people be able to act for me because of COVID-19? Will everything be closed? How will I manage to make this.... Oh dear. 

Location - Khalid

In terms of location, this is a tricky one... I was planning on using an actual pawn shop until I searched for pawn shops in Miami. They were a no no :((. 

I found this: 

They just don't match my vision at all!!! All the other ones also look like this. It doesn't match with the misc-en scene that I was going for: a vintage looking pawn shop with the most obscure items. Inside these pawn shops are only fancy jewelry sections. 

I really wanted something like Jaxson's Ice Cream Parlor. It doesn't have to scream 1800's candy store, but I love all of the different colors inside, especially the red. 

I did some research around the area that Jaxson's is in to see if I could use the streets around the area to film.

I found these streets. They are okay. They still don't 100% go with my vision but I will keep looking.

Then, instead of searching for pawn shops, I thought maybe I could film at a thrift shop without the audience knowing it was a thrift shop. I found some locations I really liked!!!

Fly Boutique is the name of this thrift shop. It is quite far from here (40 mins), which can be a little complicated for all the actors and all my helpers to travel here. However, I LOVE the aesthetic of it. Messy!! I am looking for cluttered spaces with lots of items everywhere! I am truly considering this area to be the pawn shop. I would have to call the location and ask if I can shoot there. Cross my fingers! 

I will update how the call goes and will decide to go visit to see if it qualifies! 

Story Outline & Brainstorming

Considering all the current events, I still know I have to keep working on this project regardless. I don't know my exact schedule anymore, but I will continue to develop the story and plan.

I am slightly behind just because it took me a long time to decide how I wanted to tell this story and what route I wanted to take. At first I really wanted my story to be more on the ridiculous side. Not ridiculous as in the the film will be so bad it's ridiculous, but rather having a ridiculous set of characters and events to the point where it's so ironic that is comedic. Witdh that route I would've probably told the story in a way of having the man so desperate for love that he will give away all of his possessions just to have a girl. For the girl, I was planning on making her a gold digger type of gal. After her boyfriend gives all his things away in order to buy her the perfect gift, it turns out her dad owns the pawn shop and she has all his things anyway. This version of my story would've been with a purpose of shining light to people who are in toxic relationships and the negative side of love.

However, I did have another version of the story. Instead of making the characters unlikeable, I would have the story be a positive side of love and relationships. Instead, it would be about how there are people who will do something for the person they love even if their resources say otherwise. It is more about how actions are louder than words. In this version, the boyfriend prioritizes his girlfriend's birthday like no other. His girlfriend tells him that she really wants something for her birthday (I still don't know what she would want, but it would be something very niche and specific). He quickly looks for money but he only finds two crumbled up five dollar bills. He goes out to try and find the object his girlfriend wants. The rest of the story follows him pawning his own items and exchanging things in order to get his girlfriend's gift. Although this version is a more positive side of love and relationships, I am still planning on implementing sort of an exaggerated/ridiculous feel to it. In this version, I want Jack (the boyfriend) to appear unlikeable at first: forgetful, clumsy, and an overreacts a lot. However, as the short film goes on, the audience sees the measures he takes for the girl he loves.

Tina helped me pick which version of the story would go best with my short film and I completely agreed with her, as I was already leaning towards the second version. She explained that a short film is more liberally if the characters are more likable. I agreed with her. One day I will make the first version, but for now I want to make this story heartfelt with a hint of exaggeration.

Here is the thinking process as written in my Google Docs

Outline

Guy and his girl

Wants to buy something for a girl

But doestn have any money

He isnt poor though

Anniversary? March 10th

Opening Scene: He wakes up to a bed full of pictures of her. He loves her. Them together

BEGINNING: Realizing he has to buy gift, face is very expressive, hurries to look for money, doesnt find any.  to buy her something.

MIDDLE: runs past pawn shop, stops to look at it. pawns many items

END: gifts girlfriend present

Different days calendar

Reason for having no money

He wins her over.

 There’s always a way to prove your love to someone.

In the beginning shows him waking up to the day he gives her the gift, shows his empty and poor house, and a nice suit.  Looks really nice. Then when he gives it to her she asks how he got all that, and he remembers what he had to go through to buy the thing. 

He does a whole chain of events that lead him to be able to get the gift for his girlfriend. This version would be more about how much he loves her that he’ll do anything to make her happy, it is not abt the money but abt the love.

Other version would be him, a clueless man who is blidnly in love but he is very dumb and is manipulated by the girl.

Or I mix it and make it ridiculous but he still loves her. 

1. He has to please his girlfriend and he is anxious for her still loving him, to the point where its ridicuolus and makes him look like a very desperate man with a gold digger girl.

Has very little money and tries to buy something but people tell him its too little. Then he gets angry and decided to pawn all of his items. 

Girl at the end goes home, guy goes home too. Dad has all these new items and shes like oh qhats all this

You get a bad impression of him at first.

He wakes up, he gets anxious abt her birthday. Like its the most important event ever. 

COVID-19

So... A worldwide pandemic is kind of happening right now..... and..... I don't know what to do, how to feel or what to think. This is all just insane to me honestly. I never thought I would experience such a thing in my lifetime. As of now, COVID-19, known as Coronavirus, has infected more than 167,342 people with 6,455 deaths. The United States have stopped travel to and from Europe, Italy is on lockdown, our schools have closed, and the economy is plummeting.  It has been the only thing I hear about in the media for the past week, and it only seems to get worse. The whole world is in a state of panic.

Tonight I went to see a few local bands at this really cute coffee house with some Ana and some friends. I had a really good time during the show, but I couldn't help but be paranoid about the people around me. "What if they have the virus?" I would think. "What if I have it and I don't even know and I'm infecting everyone around me?".

After the show we went to a diner, and we couldn't help but talk about what is going on. We didn't know whether we as a society were overreacting or if this is something that is actually going to impact us hard. We talked about how we had never been germ freaks before, but now we can't help but turn our menus with napkins instead of using direct contact.

In the car Ana and I talked about all of it even more. It was so weird to see all the streets empty. We felt like none of this was real, like all of this is just a fever dream. Everything was normal just a week earlier. We are sad that it is likely that class of 2020 won't get the last good months of high school like everyone does: prom, graduation, after parties, etc.

Personally, I am just distraught by the effects of this virus on society. All of society is putting a pause to everything. The daily routine for everyone is to a stop. Something that has never happened before (at least in my lifetime). For some there's no work, for most no school.... The only thing to do is just stay home and be with your family. It's the fact that all of society can be stopped if it wanted to just proves the fact that it is all a social construct.


Politically, this virus is showing all of the flaws in our society, especially the United States. The team of pandemic responders that were hired by Obama were fired by Trump. Many people still have to currently go to work or else they won't get paid and they are risking themselves of being infected (including me), and what about the fact that no hospitals even have any tests for the virus!!! We are also in the middle of an election. Everything is just chaotic... I honestly feel like I'm in a movie and nothing is real. I was talking with Ana about all of this and it's all just crazy.

My classmates and I don't even know how we are supposed to film our short films anymore because many of our actors are not allowed to leave the house, and many of us were also planning on shooting at school. Not to mention lots of us were going to rent equipment but the place closed due to all of this.

Man....

Hopefully everything goes back to normal... Just a week ago everything was fine.

Cinematography, Shot Composition, & Camera Movement

At the very moment I am in the process of writing my script. Although I haven't started my storyboard yet, I did want to explore the way I want to shoot my film.

I am in a sort of dilemma because I visualize my film with a Wes Anderson style type. However, I want to make this original, as I don't want my film to just be pastiche; I want to stylize it myself.

My intention isn't to copy Wes Anderson, instead, by picking and choosing which techniques of his I like, as well as inserting other techniques in film I like, I can put together something I can call MY STYLE. I'm very excited because the story I picked is going to allow me to play with technique, something I believe I SHOULD be doing right now, at this age, and at this stage in my film education. This way I get to explore what I like and don't like.

These are some cinematographic techniques I would enjoy using in my short film:

Symmetry: Wes Anderson is very famous for his particular use of symmetry in his films.  I am not planning on symmetry to be the biggest characteristic in my short film, as I think it is just TOO Wes Andersony. But I do want to incorporate hints of it. I think symmetry is something very pleasing to the eye, and is very satisfying. 

Overhead Tabelux: I know I know, INSTAGRAM.
No, I don't want my short film to look like a 20 year old's Instagram feed in 2012.
Wes Anderson does use these shots a lot, which has made me realize how much the viewer can pay attention to detail in these shots. Because my film has a lot to do with objects (the many pawned items), I think I can do a lot with the production design elements. yay

Whip Pan: Okay I'm definitely using this. I LOVE IT. It's actually one of my favorite a long with the truck shot, but I just love the whip pan. It's very stylistic, and I also feel like it makes the film feel more real. It makes the viewer really understand what is going on in that time and space. We filmmakers manipulate video so much, that too much edited cuts can make the viewer feel like nothing is real. Plus, I just love how it looks <3

Center shot composition: Having the subject in the center is the most pleasing thing for Mariana Gamboa's eye. I LOVE IT! SO I WILL DO IT




yay

Organizing my Time

my last post was all about how hectic last year was for me, and why I don't believe I was able to reach my full potential. Not only was that because of family issues and all that, but because I wasn't very good at managing my time. Because I really don't want to make the same mistake, I've decided to create a schedule for myself with deadlines.

Here it izzzz

To do:

Write script

Storyboard

Production design research

Contact pawn shop

Gather items 

Cast Actors

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					6-B -pay Day -IDOC -Work 4-9:30	7 -Start writing script -Watch movies for genre research
8 Blogs due Genre Research post Work 2-9:30	9-A Work 4-9:30	10-B -Brave New World postings -Script deadline	11-A Work 4-9:30 -Start storyboard	12-B -Deadline for storyboard	13-A	14 Work 3-9:30
15 Blogs due -Deadline for contacting pawn shop & casting actors	16-B	17 NO SCHOOL -Shooting	18-A	19-B Early Release	20- PAY DAY NO SCHOOL -Shooting	21
22 Blogs due	23 Shooting	24 Shooting	25 Shooting	26 Editing	27 Editing	28
29 Blogs due	30-A Editing	31-B Editing	1-A	2-B	3-A-pAY daY	4
5 Blogs due	6-B	7-A	8-B	9-A	10-B	11
12 PROJECT DUE DATE

Research Ideas: 

Genre

Cinematography

Costume Design

Reminders:

AS LEVEL EXAM

Story: Picked. Lets: Do this.

Before I continue doing anything for this project, I think I should give some background to myself. My purpose for this is not a pity party, but it's my explanation to why this project is so important to me right now.

Last year I went through a lot. I'm still going through a lot, but I'm much better now. I know this is a sensitive topic, but I honestly just want to explain myself a little more. So first of all, my brother is an addict. He is 23 years old. He has had problems with addiction ever since he was 16, but it had gotten much worse in the last two years. It got so bad to the point that at times I didn't know where my brother was, or whether he is alive. Obviously, this took a huge toll on my mental health. I started seeing a therapist and a psychiatrist, and on top of that my heart had some sort of arrhythmia that really spooked me. Due to all this and much more, last year was really tough for me. I was at the hospital the day of the AS exam, so that's why I'm taking it this year. In the midst of this I still had to stay on task with my school work. My project last year was the best I could do at the moment, I just wasn't capable of reaching my full potential at the time for obvious reasons.

This year my brother is much better. He's out of rehab and he has a job now, but he has relapsed a few times. My mental health is better, but I am still very stressed because of school. I have to say that his class is the reason I still get excited for school. I love this class. I love my teacher. I love my classmates.

This year I really want to see what I can do now that I'm much more relaxed in my personal life.

Enough said... But I also wanted to announce the story I am going with! After giving it much thought, as well as taking advice from all around, I've decided to go with idea #2! A guy who wants to buy something for a girl but doesn't have any money, so he decided to pawn a bunch of his items, to the point where it gets a little ridiculous. I'm very excited to do this because I feel like it'll allow me to play with technique. YAY!

let's do this.

Narrowed It down

After giving it lots of thought I decided to narrow down my ideas to three things. I have a particular vision for each one that is unique in its own way, but like everything else in life, they each have their pros and cons.

Here they are:

#1

Story about a woman who meets a guy with the same name as her husband who had died two years ago. It turns out he was also in a car accident two years back, and has a scar in the same location that the woman's husband got hit in which resulted in his death. 

Themes: Parallel universes, reincarnation, soul mates.

Genre: Drama, mystery, romance, art house

Inspirations: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sliding Doors, the Vow, The Look by Metronomy, Frances Ha film style

Pros: Aligns with what I'd consider my preferred genre

Cons: Still not 100% sure where I would go with this story

Moodboard:

 

#2

Story about a man who wants to buy something for a girl but doesn't have any money. Because of this, he begins to pawn all of his possessions in desperation to buy something for her. 

Themes: Toxic masculinity, is romance dead??

Genre: Romance, comedy (dark humor)

Inspirations: Wes Anderson film style, Money by The Drums

Pros: I can play with style and technique! 

Cons: Don't know where I'd go with this story.... plus, what pawn shop would let me film in it?!

Moodboard:

#3

A monologue-type of short film through the perspective of someone's younger self vs. their older self: Snippets of a man's/woman's childhood accompanied with narration from the person's older self, remembering all of the little details of their childhood outlaid. Then snippets of the same person's life as their older narrated by their younger self explaining how they pictured their life to be when they were that age. 

Themes: Childhood, loss, dreams

Genre: Drama

Inspirations: Childhood by Beach House, Room (2015), and my own personal experience with loss of childhood. 

Pros: My soul would be most content with this one. It's the one I most personally relate to. Also, I picture it very well.

Cons: Montage?? :( 

(I still don't have a set moldboard figured out for this one)

Anyway, those are my narrowed down ideas after thinking for a long time. I really love the storytelling part of the process, so I want to make sure that the story itself is top notch. I am going to make a decision by next my post.