How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
When the year started, I had no clue how to make a storyboard, shot list, script, make a wardrobe or edit anything. For the first storyboard, my parter made it (for The Break-Up). We did not make a shot list for this short film, and although we had a loose script, we really just improvised how a conversation of this sort may have gone. The whole film was really just on the spot, with one of the only things being planned were the names of the main. characters and the wardrobe. the names chosen were Hope, the friend who brings light back to Genesis’ life and Genesis, which signifies reborn, shown both through her name and her clothes. Then, Hope’s clothing was to be bright colors and Genesis was to wear black pants with a white shirt under a black sweater. Stacy and Jeremy’s names were chosen. on the spot, but Stacy was supposed to be the “new Genesis” in the way that Jeremy was going to do the exact same thing he did to Genesis, to Stacy. Jeremy’s clothes were to be the opposite of what Genesis was wearing the end of the film to show how she has moved on from her feelings for him. Jeremy wore a black shirt with light colored jeans and sunglasses to represent he never shows his true feelings or colors. What I did get to learn with The Break-Up was how to edit. I had no prior experience, but i found it self explanatory and I simply tried things on iMovie.It also helped that I had an idea in my head for how I envisioned the film to be as I had discussed it with my partner.
Absent proved to be more work, in every aspect. This is where I got to learn how to make a story board and a shot list. I helped set up the script, but it was my partners doing. However, for Absent, there was barely any dialogue.
As I did the shot list for Absent, I asked my partner what she thought of it, as we had already come up with the idea, but I needed to see how it looked on paper. The shot list was done after the story board and was made the day that we were to film, as we had already agreed on wardrobe. The complication with Absent, however, was that we could not film it all in one day, because the actual story occurs over several days, and we did not have several outfits available. Both the story board and shot list for Absent are below.
Story board for Absent
Shot list for Absent
For wardrobe, there were not specific outfits that were planned. It was more of a color scheme for Lola and Mallory. Lola was to wear black for the most part or dark colors with combat boots while Mallory’s clothes should be lighter colors and white, showing a clear contrast between the two girls’ characters.
As for names, the names of our two characters have deeper meanings. Lola is short for Dolores which literally translates to “pains” in Spanish. Mallory represents an unfortunate person. As for the names called out during attendance, those were the names of students killed in school shooting.
I also experimented with playing the music for the film rather than finding prerecorded music from iMovie. The song I played at different speeds to convey suspense was “All Apologies” by Nirvana, which I found appropriate because of some of the lyrics. Below is an excerpt from the song, specifically those lyrics I found truly represented what Lola is feeling:
“I wish I was like you
Easily amused
Find my nest of salt
Everything’s my fault
I take all the blame
Aqua sea foam shame
Sunburn, freezer burn
Choking on the ashes of her enemy”.
Finally, for Absent, editing was quite easy, but I did it over a series of days because filming was over a series of days. I simply followed the storyboard, and the film resembled it quite a lot, which was mostly thanks to the shot list.
For Trouble In Paradise, I had already learned how to make the story board, shot list, editing and how to add the music I recorded. However, I wanted to challenge myself. To do this, I ended up drawing what I thought the characters should look like. Here are the drawings:
We were able to make the wardrobe precisely with what we had because these are clothes I knew we would have some variation of.
I also wanted to learn how to make a musical score/soundtrack. I already knew how to play the piano, so what I did was simply play a minor chord in a specific rhythm. Once I found a combination I liked, I played the same rhythm in a major chord. In the end, for the minor chord, I played E Minor and for the major, I played D Major. The next day, I asked my parter what she thought of them and after getting her approval, I recorded myself playing several variations of both chords.
This is the story board for Trouble In Paradise:
The actual film opening is a variation of this, as we had to adjust because of limited time to film. Once we finished filming on the third day, we wanted to film a fourth day but Coronavirus happened, and I had to make do with what we had filmed.
Below is the shot list for Trouble In Paradise:
All of these things are what I learned throughout the whole year.
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