Just Some More Advice

 

Hello! Hello! I am back again with only a little bit to say, but I just wanted to update everyone on some of my progress and talk about my experience today. Just earlier we had another group discussion to talk about what we are doing for our film openings and to get more ideas for our projects. This time I was in a group with people who were a bit more hesitant to give out constructive criticism and advice, so I just attempted to listen to everyone else’s plans and ideas. At this point I guess it was nice to feel validated on my progress and my story ideas; however, I still feel like some suggestions would’ve been nice to hear. Overall, the main change for my project is more of just a realization for myself. I had mentioned a while ago when doing my genre posting that I would want to incorporate ideas that would fit the genres of “coming-of-age,” “romance,” and “drama” or sentimental; but, now I see how “coming-of-age” won’t necessarily fit in with the main point I am trying to get across in my movie and I should omit any remnants of this genre from my piece as it may be distracting from what I want. I am soon to film and I am just overall very eager to see my final product.

Film Schedule

 

It’s been a long and difficult process with this project and I think one of the hardest parts is coming up to its ideas and time constraints. So, I wanted to take this post to talk about my scheduling plan and what I’m going to do to get my film started. 

First of all, I plan to set my filming location at school, which may be a bit difficult, but it may help me since I will be there after school. Because I will be helping the drama class with their show during this time, I will be able to stay after rehearsal, as well as utilize the school auditorium to get the effect I want for my film. Tomorrow I will be able to discuss with the drama teacher and see what times the school will be open till to give me full access to the stage, where I will be filming half of my opening. 

I want to take Wednesday to film, but if more time is needed, I will attempt for after Spring Break. 

If I manage to film everything I need to this week, I will give myself the weekend up till the end of Spring Break to fully edit and construct my project, including contacting a couple friends for advice and feedback on my project. During the editing process I will make sure to include all the necessary components including captions and names of people who helped in the film.

Until my work is complete, I really want to take as much time as possible to make my project as close to my ideas as possible and just create an overall great film opening.

Storyboard

Here is the storyboard I created to guide me through my filming process.

 

Your Lie In April

 

Hello! Today is a new day and another post for my progress on this film opening. The last thing I mentioned here was my plan for my opening and how I expected it to turn out, but I realized that my ideas had changed a lot since first beginning this project. At first I wanted this story to go more in a school-type direction, however, brainstorming ideas felt extremely difficult and I was not sure how it would turn out; but after a lot of time of thinking and exploring different shows I recalled one of my favorites, “Your Lie In April”. This show is another anime that covers the romance and sentiment of young teens through the idea of music. When I had watched it a few months ago, it had really caught my eye and yelled at it to start tearing up at every moment possible. Without even realizing it, somehow the repetition of the theme song in my mind had brought the show into influencing my ideas and I really wanted to talk about it.

Your Lie In April (2016) tells the heartbreaking story of a 14 year old boy, Kousei Arima, who is a piano prodigy, but stops playing once his mother dies. In the story he meets a violinist of the same age, Kaori Miyazono, who influenced him to get back to piano playing after two years. In the story, Kousei feels frightened by playing due to trauma from his mother dying, which causes him to become so focussed that he no longer hears the sounds of his own playing. Upon meeting Kaori, he eventually learns to play based on emotion, rather than what is on the score.

Though she isn’t the main love interest, In the opening of the first episode we see moments of Kousei’s best friend, Tsubaki, in the audience watching him play piano. The story opens with them as young children, of course when Arima still played piano, and him playing a song at some competition. In the audience we see close-ups of little Tsubaki and her reactions of shock and happiness and she is fixated on his music. 

In my film, I want to make the interaction between Vera and Andi more casual, rather than a competition, since that would require there to be more people. I think I am also going to incorporate close-ups of Andi playing piano and Vera watching from afar, before their whole meeting and interaction of Vera discovering that Andi is deaf.

Opening Plan

 

Though my plot is nowhere near finalized I wanted to run through my main ideas and what I want my opening to feel like.

First, the story opens with piano music playing lightly; each of the keys tapping could be heard. There is going to be a bright light lit onto a stage and the main character, Andi, sitting in front of a piano, everyone is clapping. She hears silence, only faint sounds and distortedness of the audience cheering. Next will be a closeup onto the love interest, Vera, now emotional sitting in the audience after watching Andi play. The film will cut to Andi leaving the venue alone. Birds will be chirping in the background and the sound of her feet scraping against the floor. Vera runs after her and bumps into her by accident making her drop all of her sheet music on the floor. She tries to apologize, but of course, Andi is deaf and does not understand. She quickly signs to her and runs off with scrambled papers. Vera looks off confused and surprised, and looks down to see a forgotten paper with information about a Deaf school. To be continued...

Although Andi is the main character, some parts of the story will follow Vera and her attempt to communicate with Andi by learning ASL and becoming very close with her and her music.

I Sense there is more than just hearing.

    

Although this is painfully obvious, deaf people cannot hear. Yes, we all knew that, but I just wanted to state that to bring up something that may have been overlooked: all of the other senses. People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing rely a lot on sight and feeling and I just wanted to have a quick post on why this is important and how I will show this in my opening. 

Well first let's talk about sight. 

This is one of the main tools that Deaf people use in order to do almost everything that everyone else does. Sign Language is a very visual language, and just being attentive to surroundings, the eyes are extremely important. I must take into account some of my lighting choices within my film and what may be the easiest to use when accommodating Deaf individuals. 

First off, many deaf people have light switches that flicker throughout the house to notify them when someone is ringing the doorbell. The flickering of lights is also a way to grab someone’s attention, since they wouldn’t be able to hear you. This may also be used in fire alarms at school or even a wake-up alarm that flashes. Second, I will utilize as much natural daylight as possible if my characters need to be signing to allow for proper visual of them communicating. Other than that, I may use bright flashlights or a light kit, if needed to have different colors or add a different effect if I need to film anything in a dark area.

Another important accommodation that I will include in my editing process is closed captions. While subtitles may give a translation or text-to-speech version of what is being said, captions include other sounds such as a radio going off, clicking of a pen, opening of a door, etc. Just the many things that deaf people who may be viewing the film, would like to see to understand what may be happening.

Another important sense is feeling.

    Although not spoken about a lot, Deaf people will still rely on vibrations. Despite not being able to actually listen to music, Deaf individuals can still enjoy it just by feeling it. Many of them will blast their music and speakers just to be able to feel the vibrations and beat of the music. Just like in The Sound Of Metal, people may place their hands on an instrument and feel the clicking of piano keys or the beat of the drum. Additionally, feeling vibrations is also used within speech or oral training for deaf children; they would feel the vocal cords of the person speaking and try to match the vibrations of their own. I plan on having my main character act just as every other deaf person and allow her to feel the beat of her favorite music just to get her day going.

The Sound Of Metal

 

    Last week, I was recommended a movie to refer to for my project and I finally had the opportunity to watch it, so I thought it’d be nice to write a short review and how I can relate it to my opening.

    The movie, The Sound Of Metal (2019), is about a man who is a drummer for a heavy metal band and how his increasing hearing loss is becoming detrimental to his work. 

    The opening starts off with- what seems to be- the main character at his drum set in a close-up shot. In the background we hear distorted feedback, singing, and just overwhelming and overbearing sounds. Along with this we have the strobing effect of red and white lights on the character. 

    Still in the beginning of the movie, the main character starts to hear ringing and muffled noises and he seems quiet and confused as to what is happening. Eventually it keeps getting worse and worse to the point that he can hear very little and goes to see an audiologist. He is given the option of a Cochlear Implant. A cochlear implant (C.I.) is a machine that is implanted on the cochlea, an inside part of the ear, through an invasive and costly surgery, that allows someone who is deaf or hard of hearing to hear. There is a separate piece that attaches like a magnet to the part of the head that the implant is. This controls the ability to hear. It is said that C.I. do not work for everyone, especially adults it may be more difficult. Although most of this process was not explained in the film, we can see Ruben’s quick response to get the surgery, which makes sense since he’s lived all his life so far as a hearing person.

    In some later scenes Ruben is introduced to people who are deaf and living in a Deaf community. After a lot of reluctance to cooperate with these people his girlfriend/bandmate forces him to stay for his own good. Although very ignorant, he eventually picks up ASL and learns to communicate with the rest of the people staying in the same house as well as learning with students. Despite learning to be happy, he is faced with thinking about his future, which causes him to sell all of his valuable belongings and get the surgery without thinking about any repercussions. He is kicked out of the home and forced to start again. As expected, the cochlear implant does not work for him and he is left disappointed and alone in his decision.

    At the very end of the film, he realizes that he would've been better off if he had taken the time to clear his mind while it was silent, then rush into stupid selfish decisions.

  

 This film will help me reflect onto my own characters and plot of my opening and gave me many more ideas to include in the process. Overall, it gave me a different outlook than I had before on how I can develop my main character and their journey, even though she is already deaf and not becoming deaf.