As I mentioned before, we decided to film in Andrea's house, as it has two equally-sized rooms and is simply a place that we don't need permission to film at. Andrea took pictures to show where we'll be filming.
Valerie's room
Another possibility of Valerie's room
We have two possibilities for Valerie's room. While the first room is the same size as Mara's room, the other room has more lighting about uses more white, which could help with contrast. However, I think the first one would look better, as it adds more personality to her. Valerie shouldn't be introduced as completely bland as the audience should somewhat connect with her (a common part of coming-of-age films).
Mara's room
Although this room has LED lights, which can help with lighting, we decided to keep them off while filming. This will keep the consistent use of natural lighting. Also, stronger blues typically create a feeling of peacefulness or loyalty, which isn't what we're aiming for with Mara. We will use greyish blues through Mara's clothes, instead.
Where Valerie will open the door for Bella
We're officially filming tomorrow!! Unfortunately, our friend Andreina, playing Valerie, can't make it Sunday. We were originally going to reschedule, but doing it during the week or next weekend would just put us even more behind. So, we're asking a few of our other friends to see if they can make it. If they can't, I'll just take her place. This is bad last-minute problem that probably could have been avoided, but we're trying to make it work. I'll definitely document our filming process and the script!
Today in class we discussed mise-en-scene and dialogue. However, we also needed to figure out what exactly we were going to do with the final shot before we start filming. We couldn't tell if we wanted to show Valerie in Mara's position, wearing her sweater or in her room, or if that should be later in the film. We also considered if she could be reading the letter that was written to her. However, we feel like this would be rushing the film, making it look messy. Valerie would look extremely different and it would look too confusing. We also thought of her looking through Valerie's room, as a form of acceptance.
The word "acceptance" made us think of the well-known "5 stages of grief". Why not structure the film based on her five stages of grief? This is when Lucia came up with the idea of setting the film up into "chapters", inspired by La La Land breaking the film up into seasons. I also liked this concept; it reminded me of different parts used in Everything Everywhere All At Once. It establishes different points throughout the film, which we could definitely use for ours. We can document Valerie's feelings through each stage, separating them through a black screen and text.
These 5 stages, originally written by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, are made for people recovering from the death of a loved one. I was able to find an article discussing it here. It showed that the stages are broad for each person, they typically go through different changes, some bigger than others. So, for our film opening, I don't want Valerie to change completely. She would be going through the first stage, denial, and would progress throughout the film. Since each stage would most likely be over 20 minutes in the film, I don't even want to show that much right away with the first clip. I looked for an article (found here) that goes into more depth about denial. Here are some common characteristics I found.
shock
emotionally numb
confusion/disorientation
shutting down/forgetting about the loss
staying busy
mindless behaviors
I feel like with this, we can make a singular clip that has a similar composition of the shot that we were going to put the title slide in, a medium shot of Mara. We can have a medium shot of Valerie, staring and feeling numb about everything. I'm not sure if we should put music in or not. It would fill the silence, but maybe silence is what is needed in the moment. We could add white noise like what we were going to do with Mara, or add slight music. I was also thinking of keeping Bella in the scene. It shows that she will be a great help during the film. I'll need to discuss this AGAIN with my group. I'll update soon!
Mise-en-scene is a very broad topic to research when it comes to making a film. However, based on notes I took earlier in the year, they can be narrowed down to a few aspects. This film, based on the plot, will be realistic.
Lighting
Set Design
Costume Design
Make-up
Color
These elements obviously defer depending on tone, context, and characters. For my group's film opening, this is one of the most important things we need to focus on to create contrast between the two characters; even our peers during group discussions pointed that out. We can use all of these elements to contrast.
Color
Before I begin thinking of the other parts of mise-en-scene, I want to focus on which colors work best for each character. As each color develops different meaning, I want to establish a single color for each person.
I'm hoping to ask my teacher next class if I should mix different hues in the film or if its a bad idea. While warm hues represent excitement, cold hues represent calmness. Shots that center around Mara will obviously have a cool hue, but I'm wondering if I should make shots focused on Valerie a warmer hue, as she is more positive and enthusiastic. Warmer colors consist of reds, oranges, and yellows, while cool colors consist of greens, pinks, blues, and violets.
For Mara, I've always pictured her with desaturated blues. When it comes to psychology through American representation, desaturated blues can mean sadness, depression, and negativity. Valerie, on the other hand, is more complex. I see her more with pinks, representing tranquility and comfort, and violets, representing beauty and inspiration. We could also incorporate whites when it comes to her to show innocence, which will most likely change throughout the film. This is also making me realize - how do Valerie's colors change during the time jump?
Lighting
Just like the hues, I'm not sure if adding too much contrast in lighting will make the film look good. Something subtle that I do want to add is Mara's bedroom lights being off while everything else is turned on. However, I also want to keep natural lighting from the sun in Valerie's room, as it feels more refreshing than a room light. This means that I would have to just make Mara's room a little bit darker than Valerie's, but still make it visible enough for people to see everything in the beginning. So, lighting could be pretty difficult in this opening that involves a lot of detail, for not much effect. I'm not sure if I should use that or just keep the lighting neutral for all of the rooms. I will need to discuss with my group about this.
Set Design
Set design develops the setting to create an intended atmosphere, and attempts to make the set look lived in. We also need to pick a specific location. As the story is intended to take place indoors, as long as we have a house to film in, the specific city or location doesn't matter much. We want to film the opening in Andrea's house, as she has two bedrooms similar in size that we can use along with a bathtub.
Set design should especially be incorporated when it comes to the contrast between Mara and Valerie's rooms. Obviously, when I googled "how to make a room look messy", the exact opposite results showed up. So, I took this to my advantage and looked for things that the articles would say not to do. With articles like "5 Things That Are Making Your Bedroom Look Messy" (found here), I was able to create a list with props and other aspects that can make Mara's room look given up on and a mess.
clean or dirty laundry
open closet
cluttered surfaces (with items on it)
a lot of pillows
singular shoes
I also looked for inspiration from other teenage rooms in films, using an article that ranked them from worst to best. (found here).
Along with articles, I also simply looked for images of common messy teenage bedrooms, as that as specifically what I am looking for when it comes to set design. Using the image below and others I found online, I listed more items we can bring on the day of filming.
papers/schoolwork
backpack
books
sports equipment
stuffed animals
plastic bottles/wrappers
photos/posters
Our group also wanted to add a physical picture of Mara and Valerie together to be displayed in a shot during the credit sequence, to show they are close at times and not absolute enemies. We will take the picture this week.
When it comes to Valerie, I want to make it perfectly organized and nice. We can do this easily by cleaning everything up, making the bed, etc. There's not much inspiration needed, as most clean bedrooms online pretty much look the same. Valerie's room won't be displayed much, so all I want to focus on is organization and maybe a bit of color incorporated, especially white (emphasizing innocence). Overall, I want the colors in their rooms to be mostly neutral colors to add balance to the film.
As seen above, many "clean" rooms rely on whites and natural lighting
Costume Design
This is where I think most of the color should come in. For Mara, of course, I want to focus on desaturated blues and greys. I've noticed in many coming of age films with sad or anxious teenagers, they use navy blue sweaters and very neutral colors.
Melinda from Speak, struggling to make friends after going through a traumatic situation
Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, grappling his friend's suicide
They have a common trend of wearing navy blue zipper sweaters, very comforting yet casual clothing to blend in with everyone else. This fits Mara's character well, as she won't even be the main character later on in the movie. Below are two pictures I found that would fit the character. I like the idea of sweatpants or pijama pants, showing she doesn't try much anymore.
If you haven't guessed it already, Valerie could use a light pinks, purples, and white in her outfit, as I believe it would showcase her personality the most. As I was looking for outfits from coming-of-age films to take inspiration from, I realized that the contrast between Valerie and Mara is really similar to the contrast between Nadine and Krista, two best friends from The Edge of Seventeen.
Krista from The Edge of Seventeen wearing light pinks
compared to Nadine, wearing dark blues to show
that Krista is the more positive, enthusiastic person.
From there, I found some outfits on social media that we could use for our film, that fit more common standards today.
Although these outfits are still casual, they feel more put together. These combinations of neutrals and color make the film not feel too over-exaggerated; there are already many aspects of the film opening that are emphasizing their contrast. We could also add accessories and jewelry to Valerie, such as earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, to show that she is put together to see a friend.
Make-up
To be honest, I don't know much about make-up in general. However, I feel like for Mara, we don't need to add much, or we can maybe even emphasize lack of sleep by coloring under her eyes. Valerie could be wearing nicer make-up. If this is discussed within our group, I'll write more about it soon.
After doing research on costume design and color, I believe that for the last scene, Valerie can put on a dark grey or navy blue sweater/shirt. It would show the impact the suicide took on her emotionally, eventually leading her to even change her wardrobe. The make-up could also become a lot less, maybe even none at all. Also, due to scheduling issues, we can't film on Wednesday, March 6th. I'll dedicate this time for more researching and blogging. See you then!
It's crazy to talk about this now after already having it done for almost a week, but I wanted to dedicate this post on the storyboard I created and how I can apply past research I did to my overall opening. This doesn't mean I'm gonna stop research, I still want to have more details on how to make every aspect of my opening have meaning. I posted the storyboard in my last blog, but I'll show it again here for reference.
(Also, the project name was just "Film opening" at the time because we still didn't have a title in mind.)
Mara's Room
These sequence of shots was an attempt of following the outline of the opening. There are a few frames, like the medium and long shots, that might be changed if I can find out if there's a better way to display them. I don't want to just add a huge variety of shots that don't have much meaning to them. For the first scene, of Mara in her room, I cut down the amount of shots in the storyboard because of space. I'm thinking I can make a separate storyboard to display just that part. There will be a variety of shots establishing the room (the mess, the note, a picture with her and her sister) while also showing the credits. That's the most important reason why I need to have multiple shots in the room. However, I still also have that problem with time during the film. I'll need to see how I can limit it.
Also, I want to add that we decided to get rid of the flashback idea. It simply takes up too much time and could add some confusion and mix of mood. It also won't give too much away in the opening. We wanted the letter to be really noticed later in the film, after Mara's death.
Interaction between the two sisters
Moving on from that part, when Valerie walks in to Mara's room, I simply used long and medium shots to focus on the dialogue between the two characters. A shot-reverse-shot will be used between their conversation. I'm thinking of including a contrast in lighting between the open door in her room, emphasizing the mindset between the two characters and how they feel about each other. The script isn't finished yet (I might still need to do research on that too), but this is where most of the dialogue will take place. The sisters have a strong bond, but as most siblings are, aren't afraid to point out their flaws. From there, the focus shifts to Valerie, she closes the door and (maybe) the lighting could become brighter.
Graphic Match
From here, I wanted to incorporate both graphic matches and crosscutting, also known as parallel editing. These techniques, of course, show the contrast in what they're doing and how they feel about their daily lives. During this part of the scene, to help with time, I could add any credits that I don't have enough time to add for in the first scene. When the camera tracks Valerie to her room, I could use the same shot showing Valerie's room compared to Mara's room. However, for this to work the way I want it to, it would be best to have the rooms similar in composition. Since we're filming everything in one house, we should probably look for bedrooms of the same layout or size.
For that specific shot, want them to both be on their phones. To avoid unnecessary detail, I don't think I'll edit any text messages onto the scene in Valerie's room. When it cuts to Mara's room, Mara will be on her phone, and text messages revealing the blackmailing are going to be shown, since it actually is needed to understand part of her character.
Crosscutting
This section of the opening was also cut down in the storyboard, but the concept of it is there. While Valerie is seeing her friend Bella, Mara begins walking to the bathroom. This is where I also want to add a contrast in noise; music and many sound effects when showing Valerie, but silence when showing Mara. We can implement white noise to fill in the silence.
This is the second part of the opening that will include most of the dialogue. Because of this, I don't want to show that many complex shots during interactions between Valerie and Bella, so dialogue is heavily focused on. When it cuts back to Mara, she is in the bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror. This is another section that I'm worried about when it comes to time. The clip from Thirteen that we took inspiration from took around 30 seconds to fully take effect. For our opening, we'll definitely have to shorten it, maybe to 10 seconds. I also want to add another shot of Valerie before walking into the bathroom, just so the time pass isn't immediate (this part isn't included in the storyboard).
Valerie's Reaction
Valerie walking into the bathroom and finding Mara is one of the most confusing parts for me, and I definitely need to clear it out before we begin filming. As someone who's never witnessed a suicide, this will be harder for me to know which exact emotion Valerie should really be expressing. Should she immediately be in shock, or disbelief? So, I researched different film scenes of reactions to overdose, as this is the best way we could find an accurate reaction.
I found a scene from 28 Days and from Pulp Fiction that I think work the best in this scenario.
These two scenes display two very different reactions depending on their personality or relationship with the character. The first video begins with shock, then as soon as she slaps her, she snaps into reality, and she feels horrified when she realizes what is actually happening. The scene in the second video, however, uses more of an aggressive tone with an immediate responsibility to save her instead of showing distress.
What I don't think I should do, however, is show her actual dead body. Although they're both shown in the clips and in many other videos I found, I simply don't think it's a good idea for us to do, as its a hard process to make it look good, including the makeup and other aspects to make it look realistic. Even though it's what Valerie witnesses in the scene, I believe it's too graphic for this film.
In the second video, I really liked that they used a single shot and a voice over to show the reaction of the character. I believe for our opening, it'll match with the shot of her staring at her reflection in the mirror. Also, if I'm being honest, I don't have many ideas for what to put in the "fast cuts" I wanted to use originally in this scene. We thought of an open pill bottle, Mara's hand reaching out and a close up of Valerie's shocked face, but besides that, there isn't much to show without making it seem repetitive. So, with inspiration from Pulp Fiction, I think it would be cool to just use one shot with a voice over of Valerie saying something as her reaction. We can include the pill bottle in the right third and Mara's hand reaching out in the left third. This is just an idea that I want to share with my group.
After??
Once that scene cuts to black, this is where we're thinking of putting the title Dear Mara. I'll do more research on fonts possibly soon or during post-production. From there, our group needs to come up with a scene of Valerie a few days later, by also implementing the date.
Next class (next Tuesday), we'll need to discuss our final ideas for the filming of the project as we are planning on filming it on Wednesday, March 6th, as juniors need to take the SAT, and everyone in our group isn't going to school that day. We think setting it to one day will limit ourselves from that "we have plenty of days to finish" mindset. After that day, we can schedule another day to film everything again, maybe with a few changes that we want to make after reflecting our original clips. Before this, I definitely need to research mise-en-scene elements for the opening so we understand exactly what to bring and prepare for beforehand. I also want to include that we have set actresses for our characters! My group member Andrea looks very similar to a close friend of ours, Andreina, so they'll be acting as our two sisters. Our other friend Gaby has agreed to playing Bella. I'm already excited to film!
Throughout the making of our projects, our class sometimes will get into groups to discuss our projects and obtain feedback from them. Luckily, since we're three people working on one project, we get an advantage of getting feedback from multiple groups. In my group, along with Lucia, we shared the story of what happens step-by-step in the film opening, while providing context of why we made these choices. For example, we pointed out that there will be a sequence of shots showcasing Mara's messy room, while also showing a letter that's being written to her sister. We also explained the plot outline of our film, of Valerie reacting to and overcoming her sister's suicide. We then explained how that ties to the title, Dear Mara. Andrea had similar explanations.
(This is our initial storyboard. I will go into detail about camera shots soon.)
Our group luckily had a few suggestions to improve our opening. They liked the concept of the plot, but believed that the opening does not establish that Valerie will become the main character in the story. One group member recommended to add a clip that takes place a few days or weeks after her death, to show that the story does continue and it is centered on Valerie. We also mentioned where we wanted to put the title (the seventh box on the storyboard), and how we wanted to put it there because we simply weren't sure where else it would fit. However, they suggested that if we do have the clip at the end, we could add the title as soon as it cuts to black, right before the last clip.
Andrea's group recommended her to change multiple parts of our opening. They actually suggested something contradictory to ours. They said it would be best if her death wasn't showcased, instead to focus on showing that she was suicidal and depressed, to imply that she dies later on in the film. What they also recommended was to add emphasis on the letter written to Valerie, by providing stressful flashbacks to when she was writing the letter (using an electric buzz in the background to make everything more tense and noisy). This could happen right before Valerie opens the door, and then when she does come in, everything becomes calm again. It was also recommended that there should be another reason for Mara's death instead of blackmail, such as her parents (shown during flashbacks), but there was not much explanation why. Focusing on mise-en-scene and heavy room contrast was also encouraged among the group.
After the group meeting, Andrea, Lucia, and I discussed what would be best to change based on the feedback. We couldn't implement everything into our project as it would most likely go over two minutes. We decided to add the final clip of Valerie a few days or weeks after the main scene, as showing her reaction immediately after would be hard for the person playing her (and none of our friends are actors). We'll make the time jump obvious by showing the date in the first scene, and showing the date a few days later in the next scene. This idea is great for implying that Valerie will be the main character for the rest of the film. We can fade the scene out, as many singular movie clips end like this. With this clip, the title would be better displayed after Valerie walks into the bathroom.
Along with adding a time jump, we also liked the idea of adding flashbacks while showing the letter. It could emphasize how stressed she felt before, and how empty she feels now. It doesn't need any dialogue, as long as there is a good sequence of shots and use of audio. However, contrary to the group discussion, we decided to keep the idea of blackmail. We believed it was a realistic version to cause pressure, and editing text could be used to show it without dialogue. With the parents' voices in the flashbacks, it would be a lot harder to provide context and getting good adult actors. We agree with the group saying that we should focus on mise-en-scene elements and room contrast. I want to make a blog post further investigating how we could contrast the messy room and clean room the best, and maybe include lighting. With this, I definitely need to incorporate more research on shots and composition for stressful flashbacks, mise-en scene, and editing (credits, title, text messages, etc.). My problem currently is that I'm worried that all of these ideas combined would go over the two-minute mark in the opening, and trying to squeeze them into the timespan would make it look messy. I will see how to fix this before we begin filming.
Today, we met up (in class) and reflected on names, titles, and roles. After some discussion, we finally settled on the names. Lucia and I had a few names in common, and it made me realize that Mara doesn't just mean bitter. Mara can also resemble death. The root of the name, Mary, can also resemble that she is the root of the conflict in the film. For her older sister, while my top choice was Valentina, Lucia's was Valerie. They both have similar meaning in being strong. For her friend, we simply picked one that we liked the best.
So, without further ado, here are our names.
Valerie (Val) - older sister
Mara (Mar) - younger sister
Isabella (Bella) - friend of Valerie
Title
Along with that, we needed to come up with a symbolic title. In my opinion, with a title (with meaning), we'll have a clear foundation of the film and connect some aspects of our opening. After looking at multiple titles and their meanings, one that stood out to me was 10 Things I Hate About You. The reason for the title was it being named after a poem that the main character, Kat, writes about Patrick, the love interest. This made me think of how we could make a title that addresses someone in a poem.
To fit it into the context of our film, we were thinking of creating a cyclical structure. The film begins with Mara writing a letter to Valerie, and ends with Valerie writing a letter in response to Mara's, who has already passed. We can incorporate this into our opening by subtly showing the letter written to Valerie during the series of shots of Mara's messy room. Valerie will find and read the letter after Mara found dead (which will not be shown in the opening).With this, we decided to name it Dear Mara. We're still debating on whether or not to add a comma, but for now we prefer without any punctuation, as its less common in the film industry.
Role change
During the class we also briefly discussed casting and filming, which led to an important decision. We are thinking of filming in Andrea's house, who has two rooms that contrast greatly. We were also thinking of who could play our characters, especially the two sisters. We needed two people that looked similar to play their roles. Ironically, we remembered that a close friend of ours looks very similar to Andrea. However, if Andrea becomes an actress, it would be harder for her to be the cinematographer, especially if the camera moves or if we need a handheld shot. So, we decided to give the cinematography role to Lucia. This way, Lucia films, Andrea acts, and I monitor what is happening and help with anything. So, here is the updated list:
Director: Lucia Producer: Alexandra Writer: Andrea Cinematographer: Lucia Editing: Video: Alexandra Audio: Lucia
With these updates, we have a clearer view and can begin creating a filming schedule along with a more official casting. Soon, I want to discuss the storyboard that I created over the weekend. I also want to do more research on the way Gen Z and the sisters could speak, along with how my overall research will apply to my film opening. This way, I fully understand what to make sure I incorporate into the opening.
So, we have our characters. However, the names need work.
Person A - older sister, put together, overall a happy life, responsible, but will most likely fall apart after the opening events occur
Person B - younger sister, under pressure, stress, leading her to be put up with everything, quiet, in her own world
Person C - close friend of Person A (not much is shown about her, she is simply introduced to be part of the story later)
Doing research on naming seems hard, because so much of naming characters simply depends on the author and the state of the character. A few strategies I've found are making a reference to an old book or movie, make root meanings, or simply looking at a baby book or a name generator. It is recommended that you make the character names distinct, to make sure you avoid the audience confusing their names. This part is important to me, because it also shows how different the two characters are.
Most names with special meanings that are common in the U.S are hard to find. I started with looking at names for Person B. I was looking for a name with a negative feeling, maybe even a name that means death or ghost. I found a website that showed baby names with negative meanings. You can find it here. Looking at them, I spotted a few names I can name my character.
Dolores/Lola: sorrow
Leah: weary
Mallory: unlucky
Mara: bitter
Rue: regret
Zillah: shade/shadow
I think my favorite one out of these would be Dolores (nicknamed Lola or Loli) or Leah. I love the names Mara and Rue, but Mara's meaning doesn't fit as much with her character. Rue, however, is also the name of the main character from the popular show Euphoria, and as they have similar personalities, I want to avoid all confusion between both. So for now, it's between Dolores and Leah.
For Person A, I thought deeply about who she really was. She's a bright and positive person, but she is also heavily affected by this situation. She goes into a really low state before learning how to manage her feelings and finding out in depth about what happened to her sister. I was looking for names that symbolized "falling down" or "breaking down". Ironically, in a list of baby names who were born in the fall (found here), I found the name Jordan, meaning the falling down of leaves. As I looked more into the name, it turns out it generally just means to descend. Not only is it an easy name to memorize, but it adds slight symbolism to Person A's character. The name itself doesn't have such a harsh meaning compared to Person B's name, as Person B is the one going through the most at first.
Along with searching for slightly negative meanings for Person A's name, I also wanted to look for more positive names so they could contrast more with Person B's name. I looked through a variety of websites to look for strong, beautiful names.
Valentina: strength, health
Sasha: defender
Lara: citadel (shelter)
Lena: bright, beautiful
Mira: admirer, peace
Zoe: life
Nia: resolve, brilliance
When I found Mira, meaning admirer or peace, I thought it would be cool to make the sisters named Mira and Mara. The two names sound alike, which is how sisters are commonly named, and they contrast in meaning completely; one is bitter and one is admired. However, that would be going against my own research. When it comes to books or film, its best to make each name distinct to avoid mixing up the names. My favorite ones out of the list that work well with its meaning are Valentina, Lena, and Nia. They all resemble how Person A is at certain points of the film.
I didn't want to look too much into Person C, but I looked up names that meant helper or supporter, as that is what she does during the film. One of the most common ones was Alexandra, my name, but to avoid confusion in the credits, I'm unfortunately taking it away from the list. With a few websites, I found these names:
Faye: loyalty
Yara: friend, helper
Alesia: help, aid
Isabela (name generator)
Phoebe (name generator)
From here, I want to discuss the rest with my group. We'll share each of the names we came up with and choose one. For Person C, I believe any are fine, but I want to see if anyone has any ideas. We will also discuss last name. Last names seem trickier. Should it be common? Rare? From a certain country? I want to see what Andrea and Lucia think about naming the characters.
