Script changes

    Hey blog! So yeah we decided to change something up while we were filming. It just looked more natural this way. We had originally planned to film the indoor scene with the idea of something causing the flashback while the person was watching tv or relaxing, however, we changed it to a scene with a therapist. We thought this looked much better and made kind of more sense with our film.

   So while we know that changing script midway through is not recommended, we thought that it was absolutely necessary. We thought that the original concept did not look at all real and looked to planned out. Therefore, we sat down and started brainstorming midway through our session and I had the idea of changing it into a therapy session. Artur suggested that we can do something like asking someone to "get him" a cup of water and this would recite and cause the flashback.

   Ultimately we do believe that we made the best decision for our project, we think that this now looks much more realistic and it makes more sense and relates much more with the concept of the film. While we have not finished editing, our filming has concluded and I'm going to prove my loyal blog readers to a sneak peak of the scene that goes into the flashback. Remember that this is unedited so it may not look perfect but let me know what you think!

 

Update

  Hey blog! Huge news on our project! we were finally able to film our scenes and it couldn't have gone nay better. We had to do some minor changes, however, even though we still haven't edited it, we believe that the shots and scenes look great! We met up on Thursday and managed to film everything that we needed. We filmed both our indoor and outdoor scenes all in the course of a couple of hours.


  So the change that we made (not including script changes) was the decision on where we were going to be filming. We luckily found a more than perfect location in the neighborhood in which Artur and I live in so it was convenient and worked out perfectly. Instead of having to go to the park and seek new locations, we found everything that we were looking for right here! The filming was quite a lot of fun as it we all got to bond and work together. We got the chance of working together and everyone did their part in helping our ideas come to life.


  While the indoor scenes are first in the film, we decided to film the outdoor shots prior as we had some problems with the weather. Luckily, it was quite a windy day and we used that to our advantage and included what we could as it made it more realistic. Also, some type of electrical machine was near our location and it was actually perfect because it added sounds that made everything sound much more realistic. I'm going to put a sneak peak of one of our shots down below, let me know what you think. ( these are unedited and are not at all the final product!!)

P.S.   Check out my next blog to find out what we changed in our script!

Class discussion

   Hey Blog! So in this post I'm going to be talking about what my fells classmate, Ethan, said during our discussion in school the other day.

  Ethan's idea was that the character should be handed something during the first scene and, with the same exact shot, it should transition to the flashback. Sophie also suggested that we should use the same exact item throughout the scene. She said that the character should be handed the same item in both the scenes in order to maintain the relativeness of both scenes.

   After talking about this with my group, we have decided that these were both great ideas that we should really incorporate into our scenes. All in all, I believe that this peer discussion was very valuable as it helped us gain a new perspective and idea for our project. See you next week once we've filmed!

Finally meeting

  Hey blog! So we are meeting this week to film our project!

   We have decided that it will look better if the main character is with more than one person when the flashback takes place. We want to show that he is with people, however, he is not really close with anyone. We don't know if we can really show that easily but the idea came from aAlejandro. He said that maybe we could make it seem that his PTSD is so severe, that he needs help from people and never really was able to maintain a relationship.

  I don't know if this will be very noticeable but I believe atet, because the little details matter, that this will help the film in a way. The people near him will console him while he is panting and screaming in order to help him.

Ending

   Hey blog! So in this post I'm going to be explaining the end of our film opening.  Because we are filming in a couple of days, we want to have this cleared up so we're fully prepared for the big day.

   Because PTSD is such a serious thing and is very dramatic, we want to show this the most we can in our scene. What I mean is that we want to show that it is a moment of horror and a lot of stress for the main character. Therefore, we have thought about having the character being shown sweating and panting and kind of gasping for air.

   To emphasize on the horror that the character is going through, we will be using many close up shots in order to show his face in horror. The character will be clearly seen yelling and crying. For the lighting of the scene, we have thought about low-key lighting in order to relate the dark colors with the bad times. Stay tuned for the next couple of blogs because the big day is coming!

PTSD

   Hey blog! So to really show and exemplify the symptoms of PTSD, we've been researching as much as we could on it. Its name, PTSD, derives from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It normally happens after the person has lived a negative, life changing experience.
 
   Millions of veterans suffer from PTDS, to this day. It happens to many war veterans and eve affects up to 30% of Vietnam War survivors. Because our soldier is back from fighting in Afghanistan, we wan't it to seem as real as possible since 11% of veterans from Afghanistan experience this.

  We are going to try to make all the symptoms show throughout the film. We believe that by doing this it will help show and explain the film better without the immediate needs of saying whaat is happening. Anyways, forgot to tell you guys that these are the last couple of blogs before our filming so, get ready!

Screenplay changes?

   Hey blog! So we've decided on the plot during the war scene. Because the flashback starts with someone saying, "Can you hold this?" we're going to make it relate to that with someone passing the character (in battlefield) a gun or something related to that. We don't want to focus on the other characters at all, however.

  We want there to be a constant and faint yelling in the background and we think we can get that from a royalty free music site. Once the character catches the item, we want a tracking shot following him while he's running, as he's running to safety. We think that a tracking shot would be ideal as we can highlight the faint sounds in the back and the character's scared facial expressions.

  We were thinking that the character could fall at the end and that is maybe when the scene shifts back to the current time. We want him to be on the floor when he's in the lounge area and want him panting as if he just lived the previous scenes. Even though we still have to see how we will execute this on Friday, that is our plan  for Friday's first day of filming!

Casting

   Hey blog! So we have been thinking about casting for our film. Even though my brother will most likely be able to do it, we must think of a replacement option just in case he has to work.  He told us that he thinks he can help us but cannot confirm and that is something that is worrying us. Luckily, we believe that we have found replacements in the event that we need them.

  Alejandro has an older brother that said he would be able to do the part. However, our only worry is that he may not look as old as we want him to and are scared that it wouldn't look realistic. If, however, we have no other option, he has said that he will happily help us and we think we can make it work. If my brother, who is much older and looks the part, is not able to do it, we have also thought of some possible small changes.

 Because Alejandro's brother is not much older than us, we have thought that maybe we can just leave out the specifications on what war or past war related trauma the character has. For example, if my brother is the one to act as the character, we were thinking he could be characterized as a veteran from the Iraq War

 If Alejandro's brother, however, is the actor, than we may have some changes. We thought that we could make him a veteran of the American-led Intervention in Syria. Because this is still going on today, we can have him wearing a brace of some kind and have it seem as he was sent home because of injury. 

 I'll let you guys which actor we end up filming the scenes with!

More location scouting

   Hey blog! In this post I'm gonna be going more in depth on the location. So awe have two places upon which we've decided. We have two places because one has to be outside in a jungle type scene and the other has to seem to be in a cozy and safe place.

  The film is going to start inside, and for that, we've decided on the Isles at Weston clubhouse. This clubhouse has a very cozy and kind of soothing feeling to it and we feel that it would work perfectly with what we're trying to accomplish. Because the location has a kitchen, we can see how it would look in the kitchen instead of on the lounge are once we are there. Another huge plus is that Artur and I live in the neighborhood so we can easily have Alejandro meet us here with no problem. Let me know what you think of the pictures and our chosen location.

whole area with kitchen in the back

billiards room

lounge area 

   And for the outside shots, we have decided upon Markham park. It has perfect locations in which we can we believe that we can make look very close to a war zone. There are many mountain biking tracks that we think would be perfect for filming as they are full of branches and tress everywhere. There is also many nature trails that we think can work perfectly with our idea. Check out the pictures!

bike trails 

nature walk trails 

Rough draft

   Hey blog! So we are just about ready to start filming! We have set the official date for filming as March 22, 2019! During class, we filmed a small rough draft of what we want the flashback scene to look like. We decided to go with the original idea of having the flashback in the beginning of the film. We believe that in this way the viewers can sort of understand the story and not have to wait to understand what they are watching.

  Alejandro was looking through his closet and found a perfect soldier costume that would work perfectly with the film. My brother has confirmed that he can help us with the filming so everything is looking good! We're going to be meeting up next Friday and we wan't to get all the war shots and scenes in and then just have to get the indoor scenes after. We will be working during Spring Break hopefully with the editing.

  Artur was filming and thought that it was a good idea to not focus on the character talking during the scene. Instead, he thought that we should only focus on the main character in order to add a little bit more of meaning to the scene. Even though the following video was merely just a rough draft, I feel like those are the facial expressions that we should look for in our filming as it adds the bit of suspense that we were looking for. Click on the video below to watch the video and let me know what you guys think!

Screenplay!

   Hey blog! I'm more that happy to announce that we have our story board and are ready to show you guys! Even though nothing is set in stone, this is a clear idea on what we want to do and we are pretty confident that we can use this and have it end up in a success. Check out the screenplay down below and let me know what you guys think! Ignore the poorly drawn images we're not really the best drawers!

  So as you can see our plan is to use what we had with the early flashback transitioning into the war scene and ending in the same place where the film had started. We believe that we can make this work and that this screenplay would result interesting and would captivate viewers and urge them to continue watching. Stay tuned because this week is going to be huge for this film!

Class discussion

    Hey blog! In this post I'm going to go further into detail on the things my group suggested on Friday in class. They gave me ideas regarding the screen plays that may help to improve the story. Instead of implementing the idea of using the flashback at the start of the film, some suggested that we do it at the end and not include the war scenes in order to cause more suspense leading to the actual film. I believe this may be a good idea. Because this is a film opening, catching the eye of the viewers is exactly what we aim for and I feel like putting the flashback later on in the opening would cause more suspense.

  

  They also told me that suspense films should really begin with a strong start. I was kind of confused on what they meant and they said that the first scene should be kind of eye catching and that the film should start very strong in order to catch the attention of the viewers. I talked to my group members (Alejandro and Artur) and they liked the idea of not really including the flashback and instead attempting to catch the attention of the viewers with a strong start and end the scene with a cliffhanger. However, these were just casual talks and we haven't fully decided whether we are going to switch to this or not.

  

Godfather

  Hey blog! So last class we talked about our project ideas with different groups and we got some very useful ideas. The people in my group told me that I should focus on checking out different films within my genre so in this blog I will talk about that. Even though our film has a bit of suspense in it, it's mostly a drama regarding the life of the war veteran.

So I was researching drama movies and found what's arguably one of the best films of all time, The Godfather. I was reading an article which describes everything that the film did right which helped make it such a classic. One thing was the quick, swift, movements implemented throughout the film. I want to include this during our war scenes because I believe that this can create a sense of urgency and suspense.

Another thing, which I previously had talked about, are the soundtrack that, "does not allow the tension to cease." I think that including this drastically helped the film as it created a sort of flow throughout the film that wouldn't go away. I also believe that this constant sound and avoiding silence would help attract our viewers. That's all for this post, see you next time!

Godfather

Foley sounds

   Hey blog! So I've been thinking about sound and I realized I haven't really talked about that but, don't worry, I have some good ideas! So I was thinking about using foley sounds and I feel like we can use that and get some really perfect sounds. To start the scene with the start of the flashback, I feel like it should just be a normal conversation between the main character and someone else and then have a dramatic shift when it comes to the actual transition to the flashback we should have something sounding like a swoosh or something like that ( link below to some examples)  

  Furthermore, once the war scene begins, I have some really good ideas. For example, I think that we should have branches rattling and breaking as the main character is walking through the scene. To make it sound more like a war scene, I think we can use loud banging sounds from the banging of a shoe falling. This would make it sound like a gun. Also, I think that we should have loud talking and yelling in the background.

I was just watching a youtube video (link below) and it has some perfect sounds that I think would fit on perfectly with our video. Another idea would be that when the person says something that leads to the flashback, the main character should, in a way, blank out of the scene for a little and then the flashback would occur. Check out the videos below to see the things I was talking about.

Youtube sound ideas

Foley gun sounds

Good ideas

Group: Artur, Alejandro, Dio

   So I've been researching into the best film openings and why they made it there. Because it is the first scene of the film, it's absolutely crucial that it catches the viewers attention and gives them a glimpse of what is to come. The first scene will set the tone of the film and give an insight upon what to expect. Upon talking with my peers, I think we have come up with a good idea that we could use during our scenes.

  We think we want our film opening to be primarily on the past. We want the flashback to occur pretty early on in the film and focus the remaining time left we have on to be on the past and not on the present. We have decided on this because, if we were to continue on our film, we believe that explaining the backstory from the very start would help the storyline of the film. Also, putting the flashback at the beginning gives us more time to tell the story we want to tell in the short amount of time that we have.

 I found a great article that talks about what we want to do on our scene and it was very helpful in guiding us to decide on what we want. Lawrence of Arabia is the film talked about in this article that begins with a scene and then transitions into a flashback, even though this flashback was not our favorite as it's not going to the past but instead to the present, it was very helpful to check it out.


Opening Scene article
Lawrence of Arabia

Flashbacks

 Group: Artur, Alejandro, Dio

 So I've been researching the do's and dont's of flashbacks in films. Many articles highlight the same details, such as, "don't interrupt the film." or, "don't make them too repetitive." However, I think I found a great auricle that lists very helpful ideas and examples of great flashbacks (I'll put the link below if you want to check it out) that we can really benefit from. The article states that we must make sure that we don't interrupt the flow of the film, therefore, I want to make sure that we build up to the flashback and instead of interrupting the story, it creates it.
 
   I've been thinking about how we should cause the flashback, for example, in Casablanca, the character is sitting alone with music in the background when the camera zooms in to his face and into the flashback. Even though many films use this method of a couple of seconds of silence and then zooming into the face and into the flashback, I believe that we should take another route. I had the idea in class of someone saying something like,  "Can you hold this?" to the character, which would create a flashback of a similar question asked to him when at war, however, this was simply just an idea and no set plan has been decided on yet. I believe that we shouldn't use the traditional way because I think we can lead it into more by going the other way, however, we'll just have to wait and see.


Flashback examples article
Casablanca Flashback
Flashback suggestions article

Location scouting

Group: Artur, Alejandro, Dio

  For this research, I have been looking into another film that uses a flashback to progress the story. In this case, It was Forrest Gump, the flashback is used on the bench scene bringing back Forrest to the doctors office when he was a young child. Even though the flashback was not related to war at all, it was very helpful to see. During the scene, leading up to the flashback, the camera angle shifts from a two-shot into a close up of Forrest's face. Forrest sequined and showed a face of fear while this was occurring. I believe that this was done in order to highlight the negative of these flashbacks. We want to make sure that our flashback highlights the negative and not the bad. Furthermore, we have more insight on the shot and the facial expressions that should be used leading up to the flashback.

 Furthermore, this film also gave us insight on location for our film. After watching a war scene during the film, I noticed that it was shot in something that seems like a jungle. I have been thinking and I think that I have two very goof locations that can be used as a filming location for our film. My first idea was Vista View Park, however, after thinking about it, I realized that there isn't many trees or bushy locations at that park. I believe that Markham park, however, would be absolutely perfect for what we want to accomplish. Markham Park has a section that is meant for wilderness walks and it can closely resemble a battery field. Because the battle scene will be pretty much the most important scene of the film, the location must be absolutely perfect and I think that Markham Park will be more than enough.


Flashback
Battle Scene

Markham Park, Weston, Fl.

UPDATE POST!

Group: Alejandro, Artur, Dio

   I have been doing much more preparation in order to better prepare myself for our initial filming days. As I've come to find out, flashbacks are a function of a character, not of a story.  "Waldo Salt, great screenwriter of Coming Home and Midnight Cowboy, told me that he thought a flashback should be thought of as a "flashpresent," because the visual image we're seeing is what the character is thinking and feeling at that present moment, whether a memory, or fantasy, or event; a flashpresent, he remarked, is anything that illuminates a character's point of view." As stated by Salt, we have to focus on making the flashback as relatable as possible with the character. Our flashback will be used to show and to give an insight on the life and story of the character.
   
   I was analyzing the opening scene leading to the flashback in the film Saving Private Ryan and have talked about it with my group. The film uses an extreme close up of the characters face in order to build up to the flashback and we think we can, without copying them, do something similar that would hopefully work just as well. Furthermore, we have decided that we will be focusing on a war veteran, however, it will not be a World War veteran. We want the actor to be young, approximately 30 years old. Our plan is to use my brother as the actor and he would be the main character.






IMDB

Saving Private Ryan opening scene