Movie Poster

So, this should be the front page of my movie postcard (in case I come up with a better idea because I don't love how it looks right now)

After talking to my teacher we concluded that the first example was too washed out. My movie is supposed to be about color but it was this ugly tan color which didn't reflect the life of the film. I fixed it by re-editing it and this time saturating the pictures so the sunset stood out.

Next, I chose a font that looked kind of handwritten, because since she's talking like it is her diary, it fits pretty well. 

Website Progress

Basically, I was tired of writing so I just filmed the progress of the website... I'm sorry, I'm super boring and monotonous when I talk, I'm working on it. 

The link in case you want to check it out: http://valentinasg99.wixsite.com/thetangerinetheory

Film Name?????????????

Ok, I'm starting to stress out about a name for my film. At first, it was going to be Grief, but I realized that I don't like that name. It's so simple and I'm just not feeling it. Can't finish my print ad or start the website if I don't come up with a name so I got to figure out this quick.

I was thinking maybe calling the film Tangerine or The Tangerine Theory.

Why??

My main character talks about emotions as colors, and as the resolution of the film, she says that the goal in life in to reach "orange", which is self-sufficiency and independence. I thought that I could call it Orange but that's too meh, so I doing my research on orange and its tones and and of the tones is called tangerine, and instantly clicked with it. I watched a film called Tangerine so maybe The Tangerine Theory??? Just a thought.

Starting The Poster Process

I was just playing around with Photoshop and came up with this that could be a possible idea for the poster.

I started with with picture: 

At first, this picture was a mistake lo. I was just taking random pictures because the sunset was unbelievable that day and out of all the pictures that I took, that was the worst one.  But I don't know why I came up with this idea and sat "Hey! Could I use this one?" and I think I turned out that ugly picture into something I might actually use. 

All the orange tons (including the the sun) represent the resolution of the film, happiness. I decided to use this color instead of any other because that's the main message for the film, being happy on your own. I thought the landscape could be a cool idea since natures such a big symbol  of freedom throughout the short film, specially in the last scene

Change of Plans

My parents decided to goto Atlanta for Spring Break... Not that I don't think it's cool but that will change my whole schedule.
 I filmed yesterday almost all of the scenes I'm going to start editing what I have during spring break since I'm going to have so much free time in the car ride, that way when I come back from spring break I can just concentrate in the few scenes I don't have.

Untitled #1

Just a quick update of what my weekend will consist of:

I woke up super early and finished my script (you can find it in my next blog post) and made list of the props I will need for today. 

I'm just waiting for Albany to tell me when I can pick her up so we can come back and start shooting. I thought I was going to have more time than I thought to film today but Albany is in a family dinner so I have to wait :(

We'll try to film as much as the sun lets us and then tomorrow we'll wake up at 7am and finish the rest. I'm not sure what I'm filming today, it all depends if Miguel can come today or tomorrow but I'll keep you updated. 

One last thing. This guy I know texted me that one of my friends told him about my project and he said he could help me if I needed anything because he's studying film right now. I'll text him back right now to ask him if he could come to the shooting because I think he could give useful ideas. He probably has some extra equipment  I could borrow too which would super cool of him but nothing concrete yet. 

Introducing my new and renovated cast!

So, just an update, I found other actors! One of them is my friend Albany, who will be my Lia and  Miguel, who will by Guy.

Albany is in acting clases and has helped me before me with these kid of projects.The reason why I didn't think of her is because she lives in Doral, half an hour away from where I live so I was not digging the car ride. However, I talked to her and she will be staying over for a couple nights so she can help me nonstop. She leaves for Spring Break so we'll try to finish shooting by Sunday. If we don't, we'll finish after she comes back but we're going to try to NOT do that...

I don't know Miguel really well,  I've seen him in a couple parties but nothing too deep.
When I was asking people if they knew someone who could help me, one of my friends mentioned him because he's been in TV before. I randomly messaged him on Instagram and he said yes! I hope it's not too awkward because I don't know him that well but I'm desperate for an actor so it 's worth it.

Let's Talk About the Script

I want my script to be poem-like; Very metaphorical but simple in its syntax. I was inspired by Rupi Kaur. The language of her poems is so simple but she says so much at the same time!

When researching I found this really cool writer called R.H Sin. He actually wrote a poetry book on the stages of loss (I swear it's pure coincidence, I didn't copy him lol). I'll just leave a couple poems so you have an idea of the style I want to achieve: 

This film is really personal to me, and I want to keep it this way, which is why I'm using the things I wrote when I was going through a similar situation as my script. I don't think I've mentioned this before but I love to write. Thank God I kept all of it because everything that I felt finally works for something. What you'll be able to hear are real thoughts of a real person. It doesn't get ay more real than this. 

Now, I write in Spanish so it's been taking me quite a while to translate everything and making all of the ideas cohesive. One of my friends who is really good at writing will also take a look at it and review it so having the script done may take longer than I expected. I can tell you that I'm done with the first two scenes if that gives you kind of an update. 

Casting

I don't have any friends who act so it's been hard to find someone to help me. As of now, I decided to use one of my best friends as my Lia. She's a model so I know she's comfortable around the camera and can understand my vision a little better. I know that DOES NOT mean she knows how to act and to be honest I don't really know, but it's my only option at the moment. She was in one of my friend's film opening last year and the acting wasn't terrible, however, she didn't have do much; For my film I need someone who can express all emotions so I'm still in the look out for an actress but for now she could be a good fit.
Rebeca (Lia) has a boyfriend so he's going to be my Guy. I wanted the chemistry to be real, so that they're actually together is perfect. I've seen them and I know they don't even have to act, they already have that spark. Luis (The Guy) is super interested in film so he's actually so excited to be part of my project. Maybe he could help me in some aspects of the production so you might see more from him in the future.

Characters!!

Main character: Lia

You don't get to know the name of my main character or much about her personality throughout the film, it's more about the message than about getting to know her. However, there's clear personality traits you can see. 

Lia represents the typical teenager; She’s an extrovert, passionate, talented, etc. Nevertheless, since she got involved in the current relationship, she has lost her independence and doesn’t know who she is anymore. When "The Guy" breaks up with her, she looses her pride and integrity along the way. Lia can’t accept the fact that they’re in fact over and tries to fix a relationship that can’t be fixed. Once she understood how to be independent and self-sufficient, she found love somewhere she never thought of looking before, inside of her.

Secondary characters: "The Guy"

I don't want to give up much about "The Guy", not even a name because I still want to leave the cause of "loss" open to interpretation. So if I don't give him a name or personality traits, it supports my argument that it doesn't have to be a significant other but rather whatever or whoever the audience wants him to be. 

film plot

I'm a very visual person, so I planned out the plot a little notebook where I keep all of my cool ideas. I'll just insert a picture of it:

WHY DID I DECIDE TO GO WITH EACH COLOR??
- Describing relationship (red): Pretty self-explanatory but basically I want the viewers to understand the pain she's going through by showing the relationship in a passionate way
- Denial (yellow): Yellow represents the madness the character is going through inferring hat irrational thinking I explained i a previous post
- Depression (blue): Blue most of the time represents sadness... So yeah
- Acceptance(orange): Orange represents maturity and happiness which is what she's starting to experiencing at this point
- Restart(pink): I wanted her to give herself that chance by finding love again but this time within herself. I thought that since she's a girl I could use that pink to represent the femininity

7 stages of grieving loss

Now, getting a little more personal, I went though a bad breakup last year. It may seem like a minor problem to many people, and I'm thankful that I haven't suffered like others have, but it was a time where I felt lost too.  Even though I do know how it feels and experienced it myself, I wanted to do my research on the specific stages and found out there are 7 of them. I don't know if I want to do all 7 stages because it's going to be too much  so I found a website that were only 5, maybe the most common:

1) Denial: When the breakup is so recent that your brain hasn't processed it yet so you're able to mourn

2) Desperation: Once you understand that whatever you lost is really gone, you start to have what could be called "abstinence syndrome". You start thinking irrationally an doing hings you wouldn't normally do.

3) Depression: Here's when you see there's nothing you can do and that there's nothing that you can do or say to change time. Not only because it won't come back but because it would not be the same anyways. Here's when you mourn peacefully. 

4) Acceptance: You're fine with your loss and you understand that pain is supposed to teach you how to grow and get through similar situations. You start moving on. It still hurts, but you start to move on. 

5) Restart: You're moved on and ready to continue with your life better than ever.

change of plans

Ok so I realized it’s going to be hard to make my message come across the right way if people are not reading my blog. I don’t want people to think that's my actual message because if you know me, you know I’m the total opposite (you don’t know me personally but I’m telling you)
So, in other eords I decided to change my topic to sonethung I have experienced to it’s eadier to write a script, and that is breakup. Now, I’m defining breakup as any loss that makes you feel like your heart is broken. However, I’m going to show the generic example of breakup between two people who loved each other, but I want the narration to be relatable to any kind of loss anyone could be facing. Uhm, that’s it for now, I just wanted to document my change of plans. I think now its way better, sometimes not even I could completely explain the idea in my head. I like it a lot better now

Schedule

My teacher suggested to make a schedule and deadlines for each task so we can manage ourselves and I think it’s a great idea since I tend to not be so good with time

•Week Two
 - planning the plot
- develop characters
- Plan throughfully the first two colors

•Week Three
- Planning throughfully other scenes
- shooting schedule
-Start shooting first scenes

•Week Four
- Peoduction Process
- Finish shooting
- Start planning othee components

•Week Five (SPRING BREAK!!)
- editing all of it
- start other components

 •Week six
- Dedicated week to website and print ad

•Week Seven
-Last touches
- Post final project

Is Dramatic Satire a Thing?

Even thought the idea is not 100% clear, I know that my film will be a drama either way so I thought it was better to start off by doing some research about the genre and its conventions.

Drama films typically reflect human behavior and crisis in everyday life. Within the genre, melodrama is a a more specific way to describe my film. Melodrama is when a problem caused by an external forces outside of the protagonist’s control. I think this term defines my film because my main character plays the victim. Drama also are characterized by telling real stories of human struggle.

Further than just a drama, my film would also be a satire to female stereotypes, and that’s something I have no idea how to convey so I also did my research on this genre (?)
What I found left me a little confused. The general characteristic for satires is the use humor in order to discuss a social issue. However, I don’t want my film to be “funny”. I want it to be exaggerated so people reflect on what “moody” is really like. Something I found to support my argument is that “it is in the exaggeration that people are made aware of their foolishness.” which is basically what I was saying previously.
When doing my research I mainly found examples and definitions in literature but it also helps me to educate myself.  Dramatic satire has existed almost as long as drama itself, with the great Greek playwright Aristophanes. It makes conscience in certain topics. Something also supports my argument is that “ Even today, scholars have found understanding the workings of dramatic satire a challenge, largely because drama, unlike other forms of satire, necessarily involves performance. Designed to be staged rather than read. ”
Maybe “satire” is not the term I’m looking for I just don’t find any other suitable definition. This is my research for today, I’ll keep you updated if I find a better word to describe my weird film ideas.

Bibliography
Malysa, Sebastian. "Characteristics of Drama Genres." EHow. Leaf Group, 02 June 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.

Color in Film

I think I’ve never been mire excited to sit on my computer and do homework. I find this topic o interesting so here we go! 

Color is almost its own character in films. It is used to infer certain emotions into you audience, perfect for my film :). The tonalities in the frame are also important because baby blue doesn’t represent the same as. navy blue. 

Here’s a quick guide of what each color means :

As a case study, I did my researh on Wes Anderson. During the summer I created a bucket list andI wrote down to watch all of Wes Anderson's movie in a week. Even thought I'm not a huge fan of how uncomfortable his films make me feel, I really appreciate all the work and detail he puts into the art direction. I want to use him as an inspiration for my mise-en-scene elements, however, he uses that humor in his films that I will not. For example, in Moonrise Kingdom Anderson uses yellow tones and yellow props to reflect the immaturity and immaturity of the two characters:

Here's more examples on how he implements the color not only in the undertone of the frame but the mise-en-scene elements:

Brainstorming

Ok, let’s get serious.
I’ve always been intrigued by the relationship between colors and  emotions. What I had in mind was making a commentary on the  stereotypes there is for female teenagers at often times: sensitive, abrupt mood changes (seems to always be cause by their period, never by the insensibility of others), immature, that their lives evolve around finding love and being loved, etc.
I want to narrate the diary of a “typical” girl and reflecting her emotions by colors. What I mean by this is starting every day of the diary like “Dear diary, today I feel blue. The day couldn’t get...”. I also want the color theme to be reflected in the mise-en-scene elements as well as the editing throughout the short film. As far as the actual plot goes, I don’t have anything planned for now. If I decide to do this, I will have a lot of planning ahead of me.

Uncensored

Hello, I’m Valentina Sanchez and this is my portfolio for  A level media studies. 

 I want you to get to know me so you can understand who I am as a person so you can understand my vision.  However, to change things a little bit from last year, I will tell you the most random things about me:

• I’m the most ticklish person I know. I’m not kidding if I lay down facing my bed, it tickles my stomach. I thought everything was in my head, but even in my sleep I have dreams where I’m being tickle-tortured and when I wake up and I was just laying on my stomach. I can’t wear torte-neck shirts because it tickles my neck… It’s a condition at this point
• I self-diagnosed myself as a hypochondriac. My mom always tells me the story when I was at school and my abdomen hurt and the principal called her because I was saying I had apendicitis. We went to the emergency room and I was just sore from my dance class
• I’m a proud latina, in case you didn’t notice by my name
• My biggest blessing and biggest curse is being so passionate. I feel everything too hard so if I don’t like something, I hate it. I hate eggplants. If I like something, I love it. I love sushi. Here’s a picture me crying to my boyfriend when I watched Lion:

• I love reading anonymous poetry.
• I watch WEIRD things. I’m one of those people that spends HOURS on youtube and starts by watching a makeup tutorial and ends up watching two penguins fighting. My guilty pleasure is watching Jeremy Kyle Show. I know that's SO bad and and I'm ashamed of myself but it's too funny!

Ok, now that you know my darkest secrets, enjoy my blog.