Post-Production #2

Finally Editing

    As I mentioned in the first post-production blog post, this blog, and the last one, will be shorter than normal. Since editing takes a long time, and I'm not the best at editing, I want to be able to use all the time I possibly can. Furthermore, the sooner I edit, the sooner I can see if I need to film anything else or re-record any footage. 

     When I went to check ClipChamp again to see if it was working, which it wasn’t, I realized that I couldn’t waste more time on it and I had to move onto a different app. Thus, like my group members recommended during our group meeting, I got iMovie and got straight to work. Unfortunately, I did have to transport all the videos all over again, but thankfully this time it didn’t take long. 

     In this blog, I’ll only include the first part of my progress since I want to focus my time on just editing. Later today, and maybe even next week, I’ll be working on finishing my editing, foley, re-recording (if needed,) and my CCR’s, which I talked about in my last blog. Below is a picture of all the footage I have recorded as well as my editing progress so far.

CCR: Question #1

Question #1

    Now that I'm almost finished with my film opening, I can get started on my creative critical reflection. In class, we had a lesson where we were discussing CCR's: how to do them, what not to do, and ideas for them. In another blog post, I'll discuss my ideas for my CCR, but until then, most of my blog posts will be about the four questions that we need to answer.

QUESTION

    How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

ANSWER

    My film opening uses a lot of the typical conventions that you'll find in a coming of age story. Mainly because coming of age films tend to have a specific format for how their movie plays out, and typically, this format ends up drawing in a lot of audiences because people, from ages 12 to 25, enjoy watching the same type of movie. The effect is similar to that of romance or holiday movies, where many of the films will reuse the same old movie structure, plot lines, and characters that they know people will love and cherish.

    Much like other coming of age movies, I rely heavily on set and lighting to depict my characters emotions and build up their personality. For instance, in the first set, you can see a bunch of drawings scattered all over the floor and Emily's desk, a spray of colored pencils and crayons, and other art materials. Not only does this give more background to Emily's character, showing us that she's a messy kid and loves art, but it also serves as a comparison to older Emily's room. Her room is still messy, except that the main difference is that the arrange of art supplies has been replaced with school books, homework, pencil cases, and her computer. This contrast is meant to show how Emily hasn't truly changed all that much: she's still disorganized and full of personality, the only thing is that now she's suppressing her true self and her passions. Meaning that the audience will still see some of Emily's old art supplies, they'll just be obscured by the arrange of school materials. I did this to show how her life has been overcome by school.

    However, I still wanted to challenge some of these conventions that my film wouldn't be the same copy of any other coming of age film. Typically, in coming of age movies, there's a lot of dialogue that helps build up the characters. In my film, and, most notably my opening, you can see that I don't use a lot of dialogue. Instead, I have chosen to develop character by using visuals: the photograph of little Emily on the fridge, the props in Emily's room, as well as the lighting and atmosphere of the scenes.

    I do all of this because, like I previously mentioned, people love to watch stuff that they already know. They love all the classic films that follow similar formats and they love their happy endings. And despite wanting to make a classic movie that I know people will enjoy, I do still want to convey a real, true, and heartfelt story that teens can relate to. My film is supposed to represent and reveal the struggles that teenagers face when deciding what career they should do and it's meant to reflect the stress of having to pick between their passion and a "real" or stable career path.

    My script for my creative critical reflection is linked here. Be aware that minor changes may be made during filming.

Post-Production #1

My Nightmare

    These next two blog posts about editing will likely be shorter than my previous posts. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I'm not the best at editing. Actually, I have only ever edited once or twice, a couple of more times if you include this class. Thus, I'd like to dedicate my time to editing so I can make sure that my opening turns out to be the best it possibly can.

    While filming, I made sure to get a lot of footage and I did look through a lot of it, to make sure I only kept the ones I needed. And even though I was left with a lot of material, it caused a problem as I tried to transport it from my phone, onto my computer. First of all, it took extremely long for it to download the videos on my phone and once it did, it took even longer to download them on my computer. Furthermore, once I was able to get the footage onto ClipChamp, the whole page began glitching because of how many videos there were and for how long it had to download for. Below is a video of what glitches I was experiencing: you can see how some of the videos are not loading, despite being downloaded, and that the editing part of the page itself is blank and glitching on some places. 

    Since I wasn't even able to edit the videos that I had placed down and it was already getting late, I figured it would be best if I left it like this for a while and came back to edit another day. Hopefully, this will give my computer enough time to process it, restart, and completely load so that I can actually start editing. Overall, this was, unfortunately, a very unproductive day. I hope that at least this problem will be fixed the next time I try to edit so that this day will be something more than just useless.

Production Process #3

Everything That Went Wrong

    I have officially finished filming everything I needed to film! Thus, I thought instead of doing another blog where I am showcasing what I have filmed, I'll do a blog where I show everything that went wrong. The mistakes could be big or small, but thankfully, at the end of the day, none of them were big enough to stop me from finishing filming. 

    The first setback I encountered was actually really small, however, a setback is a setback. This happened on the first day of production. I had just finished making her the props as well as the costume that she was going to need and was now trying to get a picture of her for one of the last props I needed: the photograph on the fridge of little Emily. The problem was that, for some reason, we were both giggling and snickering a lot. And while I was able to stop laughing after a while, she couldn't stop herself and literally began tearing up from how much she was laughing. Surprisingly, this small little instance took up a lot of our time and we weren't able to get too much done, apart from the picture.

    One of the more major setbacks I came across had to do with filming. Originally, my plan for filming was to film the first part of the opening with young Emily, my sister, and her mother, my mom. Then, my mom would help me film the second part of the opening with older Emily, me. However, while we were filming, my mom had to go out of the house for something and by the time she got back, it was too late to continue filming. Also, I didn't trust my sister enough to film the second part for me plus she also had homework that she had to do. Thus, we had to continue filming the rest of those scenes another day. Which then turned into another day, solely because of procrastination. Thankfully, I was finally able to gather everyone I needed and get filming done and wrapped. 

    Another small problem that I came across during production had to do with my set. My original plan for the fridge was to have a bunch of Emily's old drawings on it, pinned with magnets. However, when I went to go and set up the prop, day of, I realized that the magnets didn't stick onto my kitchen fridge like they did onto the fridge in my garage. So, since the magnets kept falling, I couldn't keep the drawings up. Thankfully, I have tape in my house and I was able to use that to support the drawings. The only downside to this was that the tape left marks on the fridge, which only means that when I was done filming, I had to clean the fridge.

Group Meeting

Group Meeting

    Today, during class, we got put into different groups and we were given time to discuss our portfolio, production process, and any obstacles we had come across. The objective was to share our ideas and our story with our group as well as receive and give feedback on our film openings. My group consisted of six other people: Juan, Trisha, Jake, Cami, and Samuel. 

JUAN

    Juan was the first to talk about the plot for his film, which was a thriller. His story was inspired off of the Purge movies and is about two best friends with opposing personalities who have to learn to deal with each other as well as the whole situation they're stuck in. He began filming last week and only has a few more things to do regarding the production process. Once he's done with that, he said that he'd began the post-production editing. Furthermore, he mentioned how his main issue during the production process was underestimating how long setting up the props and set would take. They also ran into some problems with their script meaning that they're gonna have to rewrite and re-shoot some scenes.

SAMUEL

    Samuel's film opening is a mystery film where the whole conflict is that there is a deadly medicine that's going to kill anyone who's taken it within 48 hours. He's planning on starting his opening with an interview of the doctor who made the medicine, so that the audience can get more context. He also had some problems with writing a script and setting up the set, especially because he wanted it to look professional. Also, he had scheduling issues because he had to get his own dad, as well as the dads of his group members, to all come and film on the same day, since they were the actors.

CAMI

    Cami explained how her opening was a fantasy story about a medieval town and a dragon. She talked about how her whole film opening would be animated and she talked about how one of her major worries was time management and not being able to finish animating the whole thing. We asked her about how she was gonna animate it, what app she's using to draw, and things like that. It was very interesting to hear about since I haven't spoken to anyone else who's fully animated their film opening.

MANUELA

    Manuela's film opening will be a thriller that deals with the seven stages of grief. The story begins with a family who's just recently lost their son trying to deal with their grief, however at the dinner table, there's a boy who seems to be replacing the main characters dead brother, yet she is the only one that notices. Manuela's main issues while filming have been scheduling and people not being able to help her film, even when they said they could. Thus, she's had a hard time finding a good day to film and she's had to look for new people to act in her opening. She mentioned how she's especially having a hard time finding someone to play the stranger pretending to be the brother, since he's supposed to be a creepy character.

JAKE

    Jake's opening is a horror/thriller that follows a girl as she's taking a hike by herself until a park ranger comes up to her and warns her about the woods at night. Despite the warning from, not only the park ranger, but also her family, the girl goes into the woods at night and feels like she's being watched by someone. Jake talked about how the main issue at the moment is having to talk to a park ranger that'll let them film, he also mentioned how he's having troubles with scheduling, and picking the right sounds to use.

TRISHA

    Lastly, Trisha talked about how her film opening is a psychological thriller where the main villain is technology. The film opening would follow a girl as she scrolls on social media, uses her phone, and computer, until she leaves to go to a party. It is then that the technology in her house starts to turn against her, or at least, scare her, as it all starts turning on and going off at the same time. Trisha was talking about how, much like Jake, she was having troubles with picking the right sounds and layering them correctly. 

    This activity was very helpful because it let me know where everyone else was and where I should be, which helped me relieve most of the stress I had concerning my progress with my project. During the meeting, I talked about the obstacles that I came across while working on my project, including the filming issue I had recently, where I couldn't film because my mom had to go out of the house. I also got to talk about my worries with editing, specifically how I was going to use lighting to show a difference in time and how I've been struggling to find a good editing app. Thankfully, my group members recommended that I have the younger version of Emily wear brighter clothing and put the older version of Emily in darker clothes. Furthermore, my group members recommended that I use Adobe Premiere, which lets you edit how the footage looks, allowing you to make it look brighter or darker. They also recommended I use either Adobe Premiere or I-Movie instead of ClipChamp, which was my original plan, claiming that those two apps were easier to work with and manage.

Production Process #2

Filming 

    Now that I've filmed most of my film opening, I wanted to come on here and reflect on how it went, in other words, what went well and what went badly. My plan for my filming was to do it all in one weekend; the dream plan being to spend the whole day filming and get it done as soon as possible so that I could move onto the harder part, at least for me: editing. Honestly, the plan was simple, especially since I was filming in my own house, all I needed to do was set up any props, get people in their costumes, film, get extra and filler shots, and be able to wrap, or almost wrap, filming by dinner time.

 Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go through with my plan and do most of my filming. Things kept coming up throughout the day making it harder to film. For instance my mom, who plays Emily's mother, had to go out of the house for a couple of hours and by the time she got back, it was late and we were all too tired to film. We also weren't able to film during the day with her because of some work stuff that had come up. 

    Nevertheless, I was still able to get a lot of filming in with younger Emily, played by my sister, and I was able to get extra shots that I could use as filler or simply for variety. Thanks to this, I know have most of the first scene filmed. All I need to do is film that last bit where little Emily goes to show her mom the drawing she's made and then there's a transition with the fridge. It was also very interesting to be directing someone through a scene, having to explain my vision, express my feelings on how things should be said and done. Also, having to do while filming at the same time, it was slightly challenging having to focus on the characters actions and how they look on camera at the same time. Thankfully though, I believe I've gathered enough footage as to where I won't have to re-shoot any of the scenes with younger Emily.

Here's some behind the scenes footage of me and my sister talking about how to do the scene.

    Lastly, I wasn't able to film any of the scenes with older Emily because of my mom, the one who was supposed to help me film, having to leave. However, those scenes will be easy to film and I'm sure that I can get that done by tomorrow, which means I can start editing soon.

Production Process #1

Props and Set

    As I prepare to film my opening and finish making the props that are needed, I wanted to share with you what I've been working on. This includes any of the props I've made, how I made them, how I plan to set up and place objects, props and people. Adding on, I'll also be discussing any issues or problems I've run into while making them. 

    First and foremost, I want to talk about how I've been making the photograph of little Emily that I've mentioned in previous blog posts, for instance my Mise-en-scene blog post. The first thing I needed to do was find a big board that I could write on. Thankfully, I was able to find out while I was out shopping so when I got home, I wrote the text on it and got my little sister to write the last word, "artist," which she did by using her left-hand. Since she's right-handed, using her left hand allowed the writing to feel more childish and imperfect. Furthermore, I wrote the main text in sharpie while she wrote the last bit of text in crayon, this was another thing that helped create the contrast between the monotone adult world and the childhood whimsy and dreams in the picture. Sadly, I wasn't able to finish the photograph because when I went to go print it, I found out that the printer was broken, and I'm still waiting for it to be fixed.

    Furthermore, something else that I needed to do for the photograph was dress Emily in school clothes. Thankfully, this was pretty easy to execute, even if most of my sisters school tops are just t-shirts, she still had some polos from when she was younger. Also, I had a zip up that we decided to use as a bit of an extra touch to the outfit. An extra thing that I decided to do was put my daughters hair into two matching braids, I was hoping that by doing this, my sister would like/pass of as younger

    Another thing I had to create were the two paper drawings that young Emily is seen with right at the start of the scene. One of the drawings is a typical kid drawing, a happy family enjoying themselves outside their house; and a cat drawing, both were made out of crayons. The only "issue" that I had with this set was the fact that I had to take a picture of how each pencil and paper was laid out on the flower, just in case we don't finish filming that scene or need to re-shoot it.

Company Logo

My Own Brand

    The company logo is more often than not, the first credit that appears on screen. It's what starts the film and creates that transition from the real world into the fantasy world that films invent. Thus, you'll often see films put their production logo at the very beginning, on a black screen. Production companies do this to grow in popularity or, if the production company is already famous, draw in previous audience members to guarantee themselves views.

    Sometimes, the company logo will be big, loud, and extravagant, catching the audience's attention; other times, it might be more simple, straightforward, and something that's just there for the sake of credits and recognition. Some of the more out there logos are the ones that stick with us and we can easily recognize, they also happen to be some of the larger production companies. A couple we can all recognize include, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, and my personal favorite, 20th Century Fox.

Logopedia. (n.d.). 20th Century Studios. Fandom. Retrieved February 20, 2026, from https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/20th_Century_Studios

    However, for my logo, I've decided to opt for something more basic, that still catches the audience's eye. For the name of my company, I wanted it to start with A, to make it a bit more personal to me since my name starts with an A. Unfortunately, after looking through different websites and not finding a name that resonated with me, I came across a website with a bunch of names from greek mythology. I figured a greek name would work, since most modern companies rely on greek mythology for their brand, like Nike, Amazon, Pandora, etc. and greek mythology by itself just interests me. After looking through the different names that this website had, I came across the greek myth of "Atlantis," the infamous lost city. This is one of my favorite greek myths and I felt as if it could be a good company name for me, it's unique, personal, and interesting.

    Here are some rough sketches I made while thinking of a logo idea. As you can see, I went for a blue theme for both of them because I felt like that best fit the whole "Atlantis" theme. For the first one, I wanted to have a big "A" that curves into a wave, resembling the greek myth, and have the actual text and name of the company on the left. The second sketch is more difficult to see, however, the idea was to have the first word be written in cursive, with the lines going through the A and the T's being small waves. And then have the bottom text be in a more formal, basic font.

    I ended up being able to recreate my first design pretty closely while editing on my computer, which I was happy about. Then, I began to mess around with other features in Canva and I was able to come up with this design that I loved. I was also able to edit the text a bit so the images and videos below will be a more accurate representation of what you'll actually see in my opening. My opening will start on a black screen, then the company logo will appear through a transition, and from there we'll go straight into the film, and the rest of the credits will pop up.

 

    After experimenting with all the different designs, I'm almost certain that I'm going to go with the newest design, where the design is at the top and the text are at the bottom. It's a fun, interesting, and unique yet at the same time, it feels modern, clean and formal. Thus, it's the design that I will be using for my film opening.

Editing Softwares

I Can't Edit

   As I get ready to edit my film, I wanted to dedicate some time into looking at and trying different editing software's so that I can find one that's easy to use. As someone who's not the best at editing this part is very important because I don't want to be stressing out over how to use an app when I'll probably already be focused on and stressed about how to edit my footage together in a way that makes sense and is visually appealing. Thankfully, we've used a couple of different editing software's throughout the year and my teacher has also suggested us some.

    One editing app that we've previously used in my class is Clipchamp. This is a free app that comes with Office365, a website that my school offers to it's students. I have used this app before in previous class projects in which I had to edit footage together and create a soundscape. However, I've always had a group to help me edit on here. Nonetheless, Clipchamp is very simple and straightforward app, making it easy to use. Furthermore, since I already know how to export and adjust any videos or sounds, I'll probably end up using this app. Below this, I included a photo of a project I did towards the start of the year.

    The one thing that's stopping me from using Clipchamp is Adobe. This is the app that my teacher recommended for us at the beginning of the year because it's got everything we need and it's effective. The only reason we were introduced to Clipchamp was because there were some issues where some students weren't able to access Adobe or had to pay for it, when it should've been paid for by the school. That problem has now been resolved which is why I'm considering using this app instead of Clipchamp. In addition, I've used Adobe programs for other classes so even if I don't exactly know how to edit on it, I'm sure I would be able to easily adapt and learn to use it.

    Lastly, while reading an article by Young Hollywood entitled "The Best Filmmaking Apps and Tools for Aspiring Creators!" I came across an app called Filmic Pro. The article talks about how the app is very useful for post-production because it offers more flexibility with focus, exposure, color temperature. This would benefit me because I'll be able to create more diverse and interesting shots, which'll help me keep my viewer engaged in the film. It's available for mobile phones only which means I'll have to make the changes on a separate device before I send them over to my computer, where I'd like to do most my editing. The only downside is that the app costs money to use and since I already have other options that don't cost money, it's unlikely I'll choose this software.

    Overall, after looking into all the different editing softwares, I believe that I will be using and sticking to Clipchamp. I don't want to risk starting off with a new software when I already know one that works for me.

Audio

The Things Many Tend to Not Notice

    As recommended by my teacher, I've decided to dedicate a blog post to music I wish to use, sounds I wish to incorporate, foley, and figuring out how I want to layer all the sounds together. Sound is very important to every single piece of media, even though you may not always notice it, especially the diegetic sounds, they're still necessary because without them, the scene may feel awkward or empty. Also, as a side note, scenes that lack sound are typically only seen in horror movies, since they create that tension for the viewer, and that's not what I'm going for.

   Some basic sounds that I know I'll need to have, and will most likely use foley to create them, include footsteps, chairs moving, opening and closing books and counters, crayon and pencil noises, and the sound of one little Emily's photograph slowly hitting the floor. These will be pretty easy to make since most the noises are pretty basic, however, timing them up correctly is what'll be the hard part. The footsteps will have to be in sync with what's seen on screen, the crayon sounds have to match up as well, and the drawing falling can't be too loud or too quiet. 

    To go into exact scenes and be more specific, I'll talk about the scene where teenager Emily is coming back to her room after going to the kitchen. Obviously, since she'll be walking over I'll need to record footsteps that match up with hers and I'll also want to layer that walking sound with the sound of Emily moving her chair so she could sit in it, which is another thing I'll have to make sure to time correctly. Later on in the scene, while Emily is looking through her sketchbook, about to draw something, she gets a notification from a reminder she set to get back to work. For this little bit, I'll need the sound of paper moving, and maybe even the sound of someone fidgeting with a pencil, to show how she's concentrated and thinking about what she should do. Then, I'll layer the sound of the notification onto those sounds and abruptly stop them just as she looks up from her desk to peek at her computer, that has the reminder. These sounds can, once again, easily be created but, I think I'll probably use this alert sound that I found on FreeSound, a very useful website that was introduced to my class near the beginning of the year.

Mise-en-scene #2

Costumes

    In order to make my film look more thought out and put together, instead of putting this research into my character blog post, I wanted to dedicate a whole blog post to my process in making and putting together all of the character's outfits. The two costumes that are my main focus are young Emily's and older, teenager Emily's outfit. I need their clothing to be distinctly different to draw further emphasis on their current state of mind, personality's and worries. Then, I need to make a costume for Emily's mom as well as a separate costume for the photograph of Emily when she was little. Since I don't have enough time to order items online or make them by hand, I'm hoping to go shopping for specific pieces or use other clothing items from my family's closet.

TEEN/OLDER EMILY

    For teenager Emily, I want her color scheme to be full of darker tones and neutral colors. This will mirror her current state of mind because she's in a dark place, especially at the beginning of the movie; she's not embracing herself and her true colors, instead, she's drowning herself in her studies and activities that do not actually interest or resonate with her. If this were to be a fully produced film, her costuming would change from darker colors to warmer and brighter ones as she finds herself again. 

    Furthermore, since personality is often portrayed through peoples style, I want her outfit to be more bland and basic. This is supposed to show how she's following the crowd and doing what society tells her to do, thus, restraining her from finding her true sense of style. My current plan is to opt for more comfortable, lazy clothes and a messily or quickly put-together hairstyle. Later on in the movie, her style would be more developed, still comfortable, but it would carry more personality. 

    First of all, you can see how some of the pieces are different to the actual inspiration picture. That was either because I couldn't find the correct pieces or buy them, however, I tried to keep the aesthetics and color schemes primarily the same. As you can see, I changed the headphones to have wires, instead of having them be wireless, even though I had wireless headphones. I chose to do this because it felt more natural for her, the wireless headphones felt too big and restricting since she prefers to have smaller items that can easily be put away. As for the shirt and the sweatpants, I couldn't find one that was similar and went with the closet thing I owned. Two things you can't see are my hair, which is in a bun, just like the inspiration picture, and my shoes, that are similar to those in the picture.

    Some movies and characters that inspired her outfit include some of Vivian's outfits from the movie Moxie! (2021) and some of Christine's more casual outfits from Lady Bird (2017.) 

E., C. (2021, March 1). Moxie [Review]. The UnderSCENE. https://theunderscene.com/2021/03/01/moxie-review/

YOUNGER EMILY

    Like I mentioned previously, I want younger Emily's costume to be distinctly different from older Emily's costume. Despite being a kid who hasn't quite figured out their personal style yet, I want her outfit to have more color and more personality than her older selves. Because at least little Emily has her art and her passions, older Emily has lost all of that, which consequently caused her to lose any sense of personal style she had. 

    Once again, I couldn't find the exact pieces for her outfit online or in my closet thus, I went with whatever was most similar. You can't see the shirt clearly, however, much like the inspiration pic, it has a floral pattern and blue-green colors that are being drowned out by the light. Her jean shorts are slightly darker than those I used in the inspiration picture because I felt as if it went better with the shirt I had chosen. Her hair is in a half-up, half-down style, as shown in the inspiration photo and I decided to keep her outfit pretty basic as she's younger, hasn't developed her style yet, and is mainly focused on her art.

    Some movies and characters that inspired her outfit include Ramona's outfits from Ramona and Beezus (2010) and Juli Baker's costumes from the movie Flipped (2010.)

Panos, M. (2023, October 6). 40 best sister costume ideas for Halloween. POPSUGAR. https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/halloween-costume-ideas-sisters-38618181

Mise-en-scene #1

Props

    One thing that is critical in my film opening, as well as many others, are the props as they will tell a story of their own. For instance, I want to have the younger version of Emily's room be filled with colors, crayons, and art supplies, while the older version of her room will be filled with school books and supplies. Furthermore, a key part of my film opening is the fridge, simply because it will be filled with Emily's drawings from when she was a kid, pictures of her family, and it will be the object that shows the transition in between years. Thus, without props I can't correctly tell the story or represent Emily's character, meaning that if I want to accurately execute my vision for this film opening, I'll have to find or create my own props. Which includes all the different drawings, crayons, school supplies, etc.

    To have a clearer understanding of everything I need, I made a list of items, which you can find below.

        -Art/Drawings

        -Textbooks and note books

        -Sketchbook

        -Pencil case and pencils

        -Photograph of young Emily

        -Calculator, rulers, erasers

        -Computer

        -Lined paper, folders

        -Backpack

        -Crayons

    Thankfully, I already have most of these items at hand because they're mostly school related, meaning that I can just use my own for when it's time to film. However, some things I'll need to ask my friends for, especially if I want the props to be more specific and personal. For instance, I know that one of my friends has a big medicine text book that I could ask her to borrow for filming. 

    Another thing that I'll need to find or make, though it should be rather easy to find, is actual art work. I'm personally not an artist, which means that I don't have any of my own old drawings that I can use, thankfully, I'm friends with multiple art kids and my sister also has a collection of drawings that she made when she was a kid. I'm hoping to be able to borrow these actual drawings or print them out myself to use them for my opening.

    However, one object that I know I will have to make myself is the photograph of Emily when she was a child. This photograph is critical to the story because of what is shown on it. You might've seen it in the storyboard blog post, though the quality might've been a little rough, but it will be a photo of the younger version of Emily holding up a sign that reads, "When I'm Older, I want to be an Artist," after the transition to the present day, the photo will fall off the fridge. This not only shows the audience that Emily is very passionate about art and truly wanted to pursue it when she was younger, but by having the photograph fall of the fridge, it will show how Emily has been losing herself and her passions. Below I've included a picture that I'll be using for inspiration, my own rough draft of it, as well as a list of things I'll need to make this.

Word on the board is Spanish for painter.

    To make this photograph, the first, and most important, thing I'll need is my younger sister. Since she'll be playing the young version of Emily, I'll need her for the photo. I'm hoping to make her look younger by using scale with background items (to make her look shorter), having her hair be set up in a more child-like style, or by using the costume design. Thankfully, this is the only time I'll need her to look significantly younger than she actually is, because for the rest of the section with young Emily, she'll need to look like she's 11 to 12 years old, which is perfect because my sister is around that age. Other things I'll need include a markers, a border for the photo, a printer, and a sign or a board. Most of these things I can find in my own house or buy them off of Amazon.

Character Development

Meet Emily!

    Emily's character was inspired by the stories of multiple people, who've all have had creative passions and wanted to do what they loved when they grew up, but switched career paths to find a more stable and "realistic" job. As I talked about in my last blog post, my main source of inspiration was my older sister, who, much like Emily, loved art and wanted to pursue a creative career, but as she grew and society's standards pressured her, she set out to do something in the medical field. This was because she felt as if it was the realistic career path and that as an artist, she wouldn't be able to be successful. Which, in a way, can be true, as being a successful artist takes time, passion, and a lot of perseverance. However, instead of taking more time to find a career that she could actually enjoy, she went straight into the medical field, as she and many other artists claim that it's a financially stable job where they can still value their creative roots and talents.

PICKING OUT A NAME

    You might've noticed that in all my previous blog posts I referred to Emily as "the kid," "the teenager," or "the main character," and that is because I didn't come up with a name for her until recently. I'd say that picking out a name for her that seemed right and captured her whole personality, self, and aura, was the hardest part of creating her character. Nonetheless, while I was looking through websites with baby names and creating a mood board for her, which also helped me figure out the character's personality, I came across the name "Emily." 

    Originally, I thought the name might be too basic, but after doing further research on it and figuring out the name's meaning, I was very fond of it and the possible nicknames it could have, such as "Emi," "Em," or "Milly." The name, as an article by The Bump claims, means laborious and eager. I felt like this related with Emily because once she sets her mind to something, she'll take her time with it and dedicate herself to it, this is something that the film would explore and the audience would see happen if there were to be a full movie. 

    In addition, something interesting that I came across while researching this name, was a famous female painter from the 1900s named Emily Carr. I'm glad I discovered her and her work because now this can be a cute little easter egg for the audiences to find, as the character and the person both share the same name.

Painting: Art Canada Institute. (n.d.). Style & technique: Emily Carr. Art Canada Institute. https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/emily-carr/style-and-technique/

WHO IS EMILY?

    Emily is 16-years-old and comes from a Spanish-speaking household. She knows a lot of people from different clubs that she's in, but her close group of friends is much smaller. And, as previously mentioned multiple times, she's a teenager who had a passion for drawing, but is now drowning herself in her studies to find, what people call, a realistic and financially stable job. She is extremely creative, smart, and kind however, often times, she doesn't know when to stop. She'll find herself pulling multiple all-nighters in a row, making a mess of her desk, and burning herself out mentally and physically. 

    The two pictures below represent what I believe her vibe and character would be, or at least, what the movie would revolve around. For instance, in both pictures you can see art, a little kid drawing or small art projects; objects related to medicine, medical equipment and illustrations; and school related cut outs, a student working or a messy collection of school supplies. 

    The first picture is supposed to be a clear image of who Emily's character is, she's a teenager who's stressed out over school and is struggling to choose between art, something she's loved for years, and medicine, a solid career. While the second picture is supposed to be a more in-depth visual description of her. The messy collage parallels how she's mentally struggling to keep herself together and maintain a balance between what she loves to do, art; and what she needs to do, schoolwork.

Storyboard

    Before I begin filming and that whole production process, I wanted to create a storyboard so that when I do have to film, the whole process will be easier since I'll have something to follow, rather than having to go in blindly. Below you can find a couple of pictures of my storyboard, quick warning, my drawings won't be that good since I, personally, am not an artist, my sister is. Also, I'd like to apologize for the quality on the pictures, there seems to be an issue that makes them have poor quality whenever I try to upload them on here.

Project Idea and Major Inspiration

What Inspired Me

    Now that I've gathered all the information that I need in order to form a solid plot idea and actually get started on the production part of this project, I'd like to share my plans for my opening. I know that I don't want my opening to be entirely like most openings in coming of age stories, since the overall tone of my plot will be more somber. However, I do want to start it off by alluding to a happy story and then having it turn into the opposite. The way that I want to build this up is by using, as I mentioned in one of my last blog posts, symbolic and semantic codes. I hope to accomplish this by using lighting techniques and props within the film.

    Before I explain how I want to incorporate these media theories into my opening, I want to explain my film's actual plot. The movie would tell the story of a teenage girl who used to have a passion for art when she was younger, but as she grew, society shut down her dreams to pursue art and become an artist. Thus, forcing her to become absorbed in her studies and school, instead of her passions. This causes her to become overwhelmed and stressed with all the expectations that are thrown at her. The movie would then follow her as she relearns to love and pursue her passions, despite of what society tells her to do. In my opening, I want to start off by showing the character when she's younger, happily drawing and then presenting said drawing to her mom and the mom looking proud. Then, I want to have a sharp transition from the character's fridge when she was younger, full of drawings and color, to that same fridge but when the characters older. This older fridge would be lacking in color and new drawings. 

    However, since I can't fully develop this plot line within the two minutes that we're given, I'm hoping to use symbolic codes by using lighting techniques, for instance, having it begin with warm tones and then transition into darker tones, and semantic codes by utilizing props, for example, I could have a drawing that the character made fall from the fridge to symbolize the character losing herself. Furthermore, the conflict in my story would likely be character vs. self-conflict or character vs. society, more specifically, society's standards. This is because even though the driving plot of the movie is how society shuts down people's dreams and creativity, the main character is also fighting her own battle as she's torn between doing what she loves and making those who love her proud.

    This idea is very dear to me since my main piece of inspiration is my own personal life as well as my first-hand experiences and connections with other people. The person that gave me this idea, though she doesn't know it, is my older sister. Who, much like my main character, loved to draw when she was younger, but stopped drawing since felt pressured to pursue a career in medicine, rather than art, because she was worried that she wouldn't be able to be successful or make enough money to live off of. The fact that she stopped drawing meant that she had lost a hobby that she could enjoy without being stressed. Thus, she went through some hard times until, she re-found her passion and found a career that she could actually enjoy. Her story inspired me to create a film opening that sets up a story that could show other people that having a creative passion isn't a bad thing and you shouldn't stop doing something you enjoy simply because people tell you to.

    Furthermore, something else that inspired me to make this story line was other people's stories and other films that talk about similar topics. I've seen people relate to my sisters story all over the world and media sphere, on social media platforms, in conversation, and in films. For instance, Dead Poets Society (1989), a film that I've mentioned multiple times in my blog posts, covers themes of self-expression, living true to yourself, and standards that society pushes kids to live up to, which are all things I want to include in my opening, or film.

Rotten Tomatoes. (n.d.). Dead Poets Society. In Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 7, 2026, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_poets_society/

Developing Lighting Schemes

The Make or Break Factor 

    As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I want to show contrast in time by using lighting. At the moment, I have a few ideas for what I could do, however, I'm not sure if they'll be noticeable enough or how I could even make it work. Therefore, I'm dedicating this blog post to my research on different lighting schemes and learning about how to make my own.

    Lighting is extremely crucial to any film, as it tells it's own story. Which is why I want to make sure I get it just right, because if I don't, my opening might not look good. Lighting, as an article by Lite Panels entitled "Film Lighting: A Cinematic Guide W/ Free Lighting Plots" explains, guides the audiences' eyes to certain parts of a film and it helps bring out feelings as well as reactions from scenes by using visual elements and different techniques. It empowers characters by paralleling them and making their emotions feel more realistic for the audience. Often times, the director will decide what type of lighting techniques they want to include and then they'll have that plan be executed by the "gaffer," otherwise known as the head lighting technician. The gaffer, once they have the director's plans, find the correct equipment and figure out how to execute the director's vision and make it real. In my case, I will be both the director and the gaffer, which means I'll have to figure out how I want the lighting to look and how I'm planning on recreating my vision.

StudioBinder. (2022, October 24). Ultimate guide to cinematic lighting — Types of light & gear explained [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/r2nD_knsNrc

    While looking through all the articles I was reading, I came across one technique that was continuously mentioned, the "three point lighting" set up. As I researched and read more about this technique, I found out that it is recognized as the "most basic setup," it uses three lighting positions, so that the director can directly choose who to highlight, also I learned that the three lighting positions they use include key light, fill light, and backlight. Premium Beat's article, "How to Create Specific Lighting Schemes For Film Making in 3D" goes more into detail about where each type of light is and in what scenario they would be useful for. It talks about 1 point lighting, that hides one side of your character completely, and 2 point lighting, which reverses the affects of the previous lighting technique by illuminating the scene.

Sarfaraz, N. (2023, June 6). What is three-point lighting? 5 tips for setting up three-point lighting. CINEMAGIC. https://cinemagics.com/what-is-three-point-lighting-5-tips-for-setting-up-three-point-lighting/

ISO 1200 Magazine. (2023, January 26). 3 point lighting explained in 1 minute. ISO1200. https://www.iso1200.com/2023/01/3-point-lighting-explained-in-1-minute.html

    As I was reading the articles, I was thinking about what lighting technique would work best for my opening. Some of the techniques I came across that could work for my opening include, high key and low key lighting, which I could use to create larger contrast during the transition in between cuts; soft lighting and motivated lighting, which might be harder to do; and naturalistic lighting, which relies heavily on natural elements. By using high key lighting, which is brighter and more optimistic, and then contrasting it to low key lighting, which is known for its darker color schemes and shadows, I can easily portray the differences in the main character's two life stages that will be shown, the character's younger years and the character when they're older. Even though it might be harder to pull off, by using soft lighting I am hoping to get a similar result to practical sources. However, I don't want to specifically use practical light as there's not many instances where I can discreetly incorporate those elements into my scene. Also, by using soft lighting, the actor for the younger version of the main character will be able to look younger, which will also help create that contrast between the two versions of the character.

    Now having completed my research for lighting, I have a better idea of how I can use lighting, which used to be the part that scared me the most, to my advantage. I know where to position lights and what effect they will give off and express in the scene. I also know what kinds of lighting techniques I want to avoid in the future.

Media Theory

    Now that I've researched different genres, film openings, and credit sequences, I have a clearer image of what I want to do with my opening. My film's plot will tell the story of a teenage girl who has a passion for art, but after society shuts down her dreams, she indulges herself into her studies, causing her to become overwhelmed and stressed. The movie would then follow her as she relearns to love and pursue her passions, despite of what society tells her to do. I know that I can't fully develop this plot within the two minutes that we're given, so at some point in my opening I want to have a moment that juxtapositions her life when she was a child to when she's a teenager, to at least hint at what the story is about. I hope to create this juxtaposition by using media theories, which my teacher also recommended we research and include into our project.

    While researching and looking into different media theories that I could incorporate into my opening, I came across two that I felt as if I could accurately integrate. These two being the semantic code, in which I would use different objects to give signs to the audience that hint at the story's plot, and symbolic code, in which I could use signs and symbols to show juxtaposition or antithesis. Within this blog post, I'll be discussing my ideas for one in specific: symbolic code.

    In media, symbolic codes are used to show antithesis or, as an article by Media Studies entitled Roland Barthes' 5 Narrative Codes describes, they show "a 'battle' between contrasting signs." Films that have used this code include, Star Wars, with the different colored lightsabers; Barbie, the juxtaposition between the pink color-scheme and the dark color-scheme; and The Matrix, with the red and blue pill..

    In my film, I hope to do something similar to what the Barbie movie did. My current plan would be to have the first part of the opening, when the main character is a child, have warm, comforting lighting that represents the character's personality and mental state. Then I'd like to have a moment in my opening where there's a sharp cut that transitions into the character when she's a teenager. This new shot would have gloomier, colder lighting to, once again, parallel the character's identity, but most importantly, serve as that juxtaposition to the lighting in the beginning of the opening. Thus, creating a symbolic code, as the lighting would be what represents that antithesis and opposition.