New Discovery!

 

I am currently working on how to pull some last final thoughts together before I can really film, but today I have a very brief post for everyone today. I already mentioned I would be looking for music more in depth and of course a life saver heard my calls and answered. A friend of mine had been using a website to find copy-right free music online with the ability to search specific types of music to use without having to worry about emailing anyone and making the whole production process much easier. I was introduced to this website this week, and I am still discovering what I can do, but I am extremely thankful that I was notified of this as soon as I needed it.

The app/website is called chosic.com and gives access to many genres of music and the ability to discover new sounds.

There are also tools that can be utilized as shown below in the website. 

Though, right now I am only mentioning it, I plan to take the time and really dive into this website and use it to its full extent to help me with my film opening.

Bad yet Okay news

 

Well, I knew this time would come and being unable to avoid it was inevitable, but my planning skills suck! Maybe that is very harsh on my behalf, but I am just upset on how my entire film schedule and planning has turned into a failure. I initially planned to film yesterday afterschool, with enough time to use the auditorium and get all of my filming done, giving me the entire break to finish editing and putting my video together. Unfortunately, relying on other people is very tough and I am unable to schedule time with my actors at the moment. Though, I mentioned a plan B, I really did not want to resort to that because now I lack time to put in a lot of effort editing and putting together my video. I will now have to film after Spring Break and this may put a toll on my project. Even though this is very bad news, I decided to find some positives in this experience. Since my time is now cut by about two weeks, I can take this time to really picture the film in my head and plan out more ideas for lighting and sound. During this time I may also take more time to look into music that I want for my piano, and possibly for the background. Even though this is going to cause me a lot of stress, I will try to look at what I can do instead of wasting time dwelling on my film not going exactly to plan.

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.