Group Meeting #1

Suggestions

Yesterday we had our first group meeting in class. At first, I was a bit scared to see what others thought of my project but also excited to hear new ideas. I am so glad we were able to do this since I found it very helpful. I even took notes, that I will be inserting below to show my thought process throughout.

From this meeting, I got a lot of good suggestions to make my opening better and it really got me to think. From my classmates and even the lesson my teacher showed yesterday, I realized that not everything can fully be direct. To make things more interesting, I can not just give the details out, instead imply them or symbolize them. In this meeting, I also talked about how I really wanted to incorporate a lot of mise en scene to explain the sisters' dynamic and contrast.

Right after this meeting, during lunch, my team and I discussed a lot. Since my partners were meeting with other classmates we got different perspectives and opinions. We compromised and came to terms with a lot of things. We definitely decided to keep that the motive of Mara's death was from being blackmailed. Below I'll show some text messages of when our group came up with the idea. This is an idea we really liked and we will be keeping it in our project.

Now onto something I was suggested that my team will most likely add. I was told that instead of putting Mara's suicide letter just there as an element of mise en scene, we should show flashbacks and inserts of her writing it. In those moments we can also include a lot of fast cuts and blurriness as a way to show the turmoil going on in her head before she takes her life.

Having this meeting really helped me and I am so happy that I got to hear feedback from other people and other creative minds. This session helped me make my mind up on a lot of stuff and just floating ideas. Ill will be back soon with another blog, I really want to keep researching more openings as a way to find techniques and other little elements I like. See you all soon!

The Girls' Names

Let's Discuss Names & Title

Today in class I knew it was time to finalize our characters' names and finally figure out a title for our piece. Regarding our characters', all my group members and I had individually researched and chosen a couple names as options. Today we compared all our ideas and chose the ones we liked more and that seemed more fit for the characters.

For our main character (Character A or the big sister) we decided to go for Valerie. Valerie, or Val for short, has meaning that ties to a strong person. Below I will insert the definition of the name.

We believe that since Val is the one who will find that her little sister passed away in the bathroom, this characteristic fits since although it's not shown she will keep her strong manner for the rest of the movie. We really want her character to convey strength and toughness.

Now for character B, the little sister, who has an unfortunate fate that ends in her death. We choose Mara as character B's name. Mara's meaning has to do with death. Since the opening shows Mara's life sadly ending we thought this name was fitting for her and her situation. Below I will insert the definition of it as well. 

We wanted her name to signify and show how she was living in an unlucky position of being blackmailed. That is a situation that most people might not know how to deal with, and our opening will show that this character could not cope. 

Lastly, we also discussed Character C's name, who is Val's close friend. We chose her name to be Bella. Within our research, we found that Bella could have meaning regarding tight friendship. We felt this name fitting since Bella will be the perfect friend who accompanies Val through her grief.

We really wanted our characters' names to have important symbols in the plot. I am really happy with the one we chose.


Our Title

While discussing names, we also made some slight changes to the opening. Our slight adjustment really helped in choosing the title. We thought of adding an element of mise en scene in the form of a letter. This letter will be Mara's suicide letter. We are planning on showing her letter somewhere in the mess in her room we will be showing. Placing her suicide letter in the mess of her room is a symbolic choice that shows the chaotic environment and mirrors the emotional confusion Mara may have been experiencing. This letter will be read by Val and later on, she will write a letter back, by the end of the movie, as a way of showing her growth and how much she learned due to the loss of her sister.

We came up with the name "Dear Mara". The title serves as a direct reference to the letters exchanged between the sisters. It adds a personal and intimate touch to the narrative, emphasizing the emotional connection between these sisters. The act of writing a response letter allows Val to express her emotions, reflect on her experiences, and demonstrate the impact of Mara's life on her own.

I think coming up with the names and titles has been such a fun time. I was able to join creativity with my friends who I am working with. I am super glad that we were also able to choose and come up with things that have a true meaning and all symbolize our plot and final message.

Now that our project is becoming more real, our next step is the script. I will be back to discuss our script ideas and final screenplay. See you all soon!

Storyboard

 Our Storyboard

Now that we finally have our plot and are still discussing the name of the project and characters, we decided that we should draw out our storyboard. In our last class, we wrote down our ideas which I spoke about in another blog, but now we really wanted to visualize it. I am going to be showing each individual drawing, which was done by my group partner Alex, and going more into detail about what is going on.

The opening will start with Character B who is the little sister in her room, this will show the setting and the vibe we are going for this character. We will show shots of her messy room and in these, we plan to include the credits. The next cut will show Character A, who is the big sister, coming into her little sister's room to let her know that her friend is coming over. At that moment the big sister will also briefly mention the state of the little sister's room, which is very obviously dirty and messy. In the next cut, we hope to include the title of our piece while showing Character B's face and her reaction.

Then Character A will walk over to her own room, which is very visually contrasting to her sisters. While that happens Character B is still all alone in her room and receives a text message that reveals that she is being blackmailed. The next scenes are crosscuts as Character A is opening the door for her friend who was coming over, or Character C, and we also see Character B walking to the bathroom. The big sister and her friend will start talking about wanting to get food so, as siblings do, she goes to ask her little sister if she is hungry. While Character A is on her way to find Character B, we see her in the bathroom just blankly staring at herself with no expression. This is a key moment to cause worry. As the opening is about to end, the big plot is revealed, Character A walks into the bathroom after not finding her sister in her room and sees pills scattered on the floor. This is intended to show that Character B was struggling mentally and thought there was only one solution.

Since we chose to have our genre as coming of age we knew topics of mental health issues were very common, and we made this plot with that in mind. I really like the way we have our opening planned and it is a movie I would find interesting. I am excited to keep developing it and combining my ideas with my group members' ideas. I will be back on here soon with more updates.

Researching Names

 Researching our character's names

As a group, we all decided to do research on our own to find different options for the names we would give our characters. The two most important characters (the two sisters) have very opposite personalities and we want that to be captured within their names, while the remaining character (the big sister's friend) can have any name. All characters shown in the 2 minutes are girls. I am also pretty sure we have the perfect actors for the sisters, this is something I thought might be an issue since they have to look alike in some way. It would be me and a close friend of mine, and coincidentally enough we are told that we look alike. 

Older Sister

For this character, I envision a perfect girl, the lucky one. I really think she should have a name that fits that persona well. I decided to look up girl names that have the meaning of luck. I found a list of names I thought were appropriate, shown below.

Some of my favorites were Destiny, Felicity, Kiara, and Iris. All these somehow share the meaning of luck or something similar to it.

Younger Sister

Now for the younger sister, who tragically took her life, her name has to have a sad connotation. I found names that have meanings of despair, loneliness, sorrow, bad luck, and misfortune. This character, in the short amount of time she is shown, will visibly be in some dilemma or overly stressful situation. Below I will insert some names I really like for this character.

Now that I have some names in mind, that fit the personalities and the ideas we have in our heads for our characters, my next task is to talk with my group about them. I know they also researched names that contrast, just like the sisters do. I hope we can pick the perfect names that match our characters. I will be back on here soon with our decisions, see you all soon!

Plot and Outline

 Plot Explanation & Outline

Plot Details

As a group, we have fully decided on a detailed plot. With our coming-of-age genre, we wanted to go for a more serious plot. In our plot, Character A is our main character, she has a little sister, who is Character B. There is also another character, a very close friend of Character A, who is Character C. It is important to mention that names are still to be decided, I most likely will be making a blog about the name decisions. In our opening, the approach is to introduce our characters. In the 2 minutes, Character B takes her own life due to a situation in which she is being blackmailed. This is something no one that surrounds her is aware of, not even her own sister. The rest of the film, that we are not capturing, will be about Character A's discovery of what really happened with Character B. 

Our Story Outline

In class, we decided to also draw out our story, as a way to better understand our ideas. This also is going to be really helpful in our planning because we will know if we need people outside of our group to act. I believe this is one of the most important steps in developing our opening, as well as storyboarding which I will have a blog on as well to further explain our ideas. I will include the actual notes below, excuse the mess. 

Planning it out on just one piece was very hectic and we kept switching ideas but I am glad we were able to put our ideas together and decide. In this paper, we have included all the things occurring in our opening and some of the locations we plan on using. We also felt it was important to write down the ideas we had on the music or sounds we were adding.

I will be back soon to discuss the naming of our characters, show the storyboard, and explain every action in more detail. See you all soon!

Schedule

Our Schedule

Our team has been assigned a project that involves creating an opening scene for a movie. We've had several brainstorming sessions and discussions to decide on the genre that we wanted to choose, and we decided on coming of age. We are now working towards developing the plot further, we have the basic idea done. However, we have realized that to ensure the successful completion of this project and to reduce stress, it is really important to have a solid schedule in place. We understand the significance of having a well-made plan, especially for a project of this importance and value.

We believe that scheduling our project will help us stay organized and focused, and also make sure that we have enough time to complete the work that we need and that we are proud of. Our teacher has recommended a plan that we will follow throughout our project, which can be accessed through the following URL: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T867K2L128zJKjqXqVWEv3h8VsbcmMg3/view?usp=sharing. 

We know that this plan may and will most likely change as we progress, but we believe that it's a good example to follow. Overall, we are set to complete this project successfully and to the best of our abilities. We believe that having a solid plan in place will help us achieve our goals and deliver a fantastic opening scene. Personally, I am super excited to keep going with this project and to be able to update you guys on here as well. I will be back soon with more information, see you soon!

Movie Opening Samples

Coming of age Openings

Once my team and I identified the specific genre we wanted to focus on, we began the process of searching for movies within that genre, which is coming of age. This is a very important step in our process as it allows us to get a better understanding of the genre and potential themes that are commonly associated with it. By analyzing these movie openings we can draw inspiration from when developing our own opening scene. I choose to look into the opening scenes for the following films: Lady Bird (2017) and The Virgin Suicides (1999). Both of these being very popular movies in the coming-of-age genre.

Lady Bird (2017)

The opening scene of "Lady Bird" is a remarkable display of filmmaking that immerses the audience in the complex relationship between Lady Bird and her mother, laying the emotional foundation for the rest of the film. It captures the essence of Lady Bird's rebellious spirit and her strained relationship with her mother, foreshadowing the challenges she will face as she navigates the transition to adulthood. The conversation between Lady Bird and her mother highlights the generational differences in their perspectives, reflecting the broader theme of the evolving parent-child dynamic. The main approach for this opening is conflict, the conflict being that Lady Bird wants to go to college on the East Coast while her mother does not want her to mainly due to financial issues. This approach is one that my team and I were planning to go for too. 

One aspect that could serve as a source of inspiration for our project is the simplicity of the credits and title used in the movie. The credits are displayed towards the end of the scene with a relatively small font size, which does not take away from the focus on Lady Bird at her school mass. This approach allows the audience to remain engaged in the moment without any distractions. When the title "Lady Bird" appears on the screen, the use of big, fancy font makes it stand out and creates an impact. It is a subtle yet effective way to introduce the movie's title and leave a lasting impression on the viewers.

The Virgin Suicides (1999)

The opening sequence of "The Virgin Suicides," directed by Sofia Coppola and released in 1999, is a wonderful introduction that sets the tone for the entire film, meaning that is its direct approach. The cinematography in this sequence creates a dreamlike atmosphere. This opening shows the approach of the film's tone and introduces the sisters as central characters, while also introducing the setting where these sisters reside. The Lisbon family residence, featured in this scene very strongly, takes on a character of its own which shows the importance of it very well. 

This opening has an amazing soundtrack, which not only complements the visuals but also plays an important role in establishing the emotion in the narration. It is a noteworthy element that I find worthy of considering for our own project since it can really enhance the viewer's engagement.

This opening relies a lot on narration. The narration comes from the commentary of a group of neighborhood boys who were captivated by the Lisbon sisters. This perspective adds a layer of reflection, framing the events through the lens of other people who are on the same page as the audience. I really like the use of keeping even some characters confused, to me that means people will pay attention more to detail. Something that leads to more engagement which is just what an opening should do. This technique shows the balance of offering content without fully revealing everything, keeping the audience intrigued and curious.

Lastly, I think my favorite part of this opening scene is the title. It is such a wonderful take on an artistic and unique title. It also really resonates with those who watch coming-of-age films, something like "silly doodles" makes it more relatable. That title slide makes the audience remember the film and plot better since it captivates them.