Updates on Filming and Progress

       Now that the story line is perfected, we have made progress filming the movie. We wanted to be sure that we were completely satisfied with every little detail possible. Every angle, shot, everything has to be up to our standards before we decide to start filming. As you know, the film opening consists of two characters. Our psycho stalker who is currently in prison, Billy, and our innocent girl who is just minding her own business, Lucy. These two characters will be filmed back and fourth showing the way these two characters are living. We originally planned to meet up a day this week to knock everything out of the way, but a slight problem surfaced, and we were unable to do so. Luckily, maria came up with the idea that she should film her brother's part (Billy), and I can film the parts of Lucy, who is being played by my girlfriend, Valeria. This was a great idea because even though something came up, we were still productive and made a lot of progress.

       I have began to film Valeria's part and managed to get a lot out of the way.  Maria has also filmed her brothers part. Now, the nest order of business will be to get together within the next couple of days and fix anything that needs tweaking. Other than that, we will just need to do some editing and make sure that everything is running smoothly, before putting it in stone.

Finished Storyline

        My partner Maria and I have finalized our storyline, and everything has meshed together perfectly. We are going to make the main guy character obsessed with the main girl character. We will have shots going back and fourth between the girl character living her normal life, and the guy character spending his life in prison, obsessing over the girl. We plan one have a flashback that shows exactly how they met each other. We plan to have this create a build up of conflict and suspense that has the viewers begging for more. Our actual new story board is in the works and I plan on uploading pictures of it once it is complete. The next order of business would be our title, which is still in the works. Maria started thinking of ideas by using synonyms for obsessed, since our psychopath is obsessed over the girl, and ended up coming up with possible titles like captivated, desire, and consumed. I believe that we will most likely pick between those 3 very soon. Names are also next in line. Maria really likes the name Lucy for the girl, since it's her cats name. As for the guy, possible names include, Billy, Bob, Barney, and Will. It is most likely that we end up going with Billy. We feel that it is a sketchy sounding kind of name. Other than the names, everything is completely put together and finalized. Filming will take place in Maria's house, and if we can get permission, an abandoned prison.

Scheduled Shooting Times And Creating A Schedule

     In last weeks blog posts, everything was pretty much decided on. This allowed us to create a shooting schedule to work around and begin filming parts of the movie opening. However, as I've discussed, the group activity that took place on Wednesday came with many changes in the way Maria and I are going about things. This unfortunately has caused everything to be pushed back. We originally planned on being able to start shooting the beginning shots of the film opening sometime this week, but now we are going to have to move this date back a bit. Maria and I are still piecing together what we are going to do now that we have all of this feedback, which even though is a good thing, it takes time to decide which feedback is going to be used and which is going to be put aside, because we would have a 15 minute film opening if we decided to use every piece of help we got.

     We are certain on a few things, like the fact that we should create background for our killer. We are not sure exactly how we want to do that though. We are pondering the thought of showing the killer in his prison or mental hospital, explaining his psychological illness and what he did to get in there. This would somehow tie in to our main character, foreshadowing at how if he escapes, she would be targeted. In the next day or two we plan to have this sorted out, and will then decide on a shooting schedule that will likely begin next week. 

http://inspirationforwriters.com/wp/writing-tips/techniques/techniques-flashbacks-and-foreshadowing/

Additional Feedback, Plot Changes

      Last blog post left off discussing the feedback that was received after the group activity that took place on Wednesday. As I mentioned, we were all split into groups, which means my partner Maria and I were in different groups, receiving different feedback. I found this to be very useful, because my group and I changed and tweaked certain things, while her group changed and tweaked others. For example, Maria's group decided that it would be beneficial to us if we created more of a backstory for our killer, and our story in general, that way the film opening would flow better. This is something that both Maria and I and planning to do now that it has been pointed out to us. Without this group activity we may have never realized that we needed to add to our story. Her group decided that we should switch off from character to character in the film opening so that both characters are introduced, rather than just the girl, and having the killer pop up out of nowhere.

       My group, on the other hand, decided that we should think about what happens after the film opening, and kind of plan out the whole movie, in order to decide on what direction we want to go in in the beginning. I also liked the fact that we were able to see other film openings, and how others are going about this project. To me this was comforting to see that even though this is a tough task, everybody is in the same boat.

http://www.nownovel.com/blog/talking-character-backstory/

Feedback

      Today, my classmates and I all got together and broke up into groups to discuss our film openings, magazines, and progress so far. I found this to be really helpful for my film opening because it added some much needed insight. Different people will notice different things that you need to change or adjust that you just don't catch when you're all caught up in doing this. We were broken up into groups of 5 and were gathered at tables that consisted of a laptop for each person to use, and a tv screen which you could connect the laptop to so you can share you're ideas with everyone. I then began discussing how I got to where I am right now. I explained how I first decided to go with a supernatural thriller, but then changed my mind to a psychological thriller so I had more room to work with. I then explained the plot of my film opening and why I decided to go with what I did.

      The feedback that I received really helped me decide on a few things, like what to do with the dog. The dog in the film stops barking as the killer enters the house, but should we kill the dog? Should it be kidnapped? Tranquilized? There are a lot of different ways to go here , but I'm now leaning towards keeping it alive to not upset viewers so soon. This is an idea that my group helped come to a consensus on.

Further Outline and Storyline Development

        I left off my last post talking about setting, tone, and characters. As I mentioned. Our main character will be in her house alone at night. She will not be completely alone though, because she will have her dog with her as well. In this film we want to build up suspense as much as we possibly can, so the viewers are glued to the screen and on the edge of their seats. Our main character will be going about her daily life, doing normal activities around the house like watching a movie and getting ready for bed. We plan to make it clear that it is very late at night, perhaps by showing the clock or something. It is the time of night where you would not expect people to be out. Suddenly, our main characters dog starts barking at the door, as if someone was outside. This would be odd to the viewer considering how late it is. Our main character will slowly walk over to the door to check. We decided to add erie music as she is approaching it to build up more suspense. When she opens it, there is no one there.

          After she checks, the erie music will go away. We hope to let the viewers guard down by doing this. Our main character will then leave the room so the dog is out of sight while it continues to bark in the background. She thinks nothing of it, but then the dog stops barking, when she goes and checks on it, she discovers something horrifying. Maria and I plan to begin shooting for this film sometime next week, and gather all possible materials we may need as well.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1281385/Ever-wondered-music-horror-films-scares-The-harsh-sounds-tap-instinctive-fears.html

https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/5-tips-building-better-cinematic-suspense/

Outlines and Story Development

        Finally, we have successfully agreed on a genre and subgenre that suites both of us. To me, this has to be the most difficult thing in the entire process, because you are literally at square one. No guidance, no nothing. Just you and your imagination. Now that is out of the way (at least I hope), we can get down to business in piecing together our story line. Maria and I have decided that the main character should be a female. Female characters in Thriller and horror films typically represent the helpless person who is vulnerable and is usually the one being attacked by the killer. The setting has not changed since I first brought about the topic. We still both agree that it should take place during nighttime, since darkness represents evil and death. The primary colors throughout this film will be filled with darks and greys, in order to set the gloomy tone.

       We want the film to start out in a secluded house with not much around. This will add to the erie setting, and make the main character appear even more vulnerable. We imagine that the establishing shot will include the night sky, with the single house in the shot, surrounded by nothing but nature. In many thriller and horror films, this type of opening foreshadows bad things to come. We then plan to introduce the character, who is in her house... alone. This further adds suspense and suspicion that something may go down.

https://clutchink.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/7-common-symbols-in-literature/ 

Subgenre and Planning

        My partner Maria and I decided that rather than creating a supernatural thriller like I previously discussed, it would be better to go with a psychological thriller. We figured that psychological thrillers would better suite what we are trying to do because a lot of these types of thrillers resemble ideas that we have thought of. For example, have the main protagonist played by a helpless girl being tormented by a killer. With supernatural thrillers, we felt that we were just to tied down to certain things...like ghosts.With so many different subgenres to chose from, we wanted to be sure we picked the right one. Psychological thrillers however, have more to offer than supernatural thrillers, because we do not feel as tied down with where we want to go with the story. Psychological thrillers can have a wide variety of villains, from pure psychopaths, like in Silence of The Lambs, to even supernatural forces. I discovered that movies like Paranormal Activity fall under Psychological thrillers too, so if down the line we felt inclined to include supernatural happenings, we could.

       As for now, we feel that we want to go along the path of movies like Silence of The Lambs, or one of my personal favorites, The Shinning. Both of these films, whether driven by a evil force (The Shinning) or not, include a human as the antagonist, someone who is really messed up and crazy, which always makes for a good story.

http://www.veronicasicoe.com/blog/2012/10/creeping-up-on-psychological-thrillers/

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls057336010/

Planning, Plot, and Characters

       The protagonist in this film will be in a constant battle throughout this film, which, according to my research, is exactly what people want to see. If the main protagonist gets his way continuously through a film, people will often lose interest, because there is nothing to be rooting for. We want to make the evil, or the whatever is causing the issue, considering the story line is not planned out yet, seem superior to the main character, making it appear that they will never be able to overcome it. Thrillers are stories of high suspense, and in order to meet these standards in this film, I will ensure that plot aspects like the rising action are filled with twists that no one would see coming, which will have the viewer hooked for the remainder of the film.

       Considering My partner and I are along the lines of a supernatural thriller, the antagonist will most likely be otherworldly elements. This will be seen as the the thing that torments the main characters and drives them to take it down. The film will primarily revolve around the one main protagonist and the one main antagonist going at it back and fourth, with minor protagonists most likely involved as well. Now that I have my genre, subgenre, aspects of plot and my main characters established, I can now go into more detailed planning.

Now that we have selected thriller as our genre, we next need to find out what kind of thriller we want to create. When it comes to thrillers, you really cant get more broad. There are tons and tons of different types of genres, including action thriller, crime thriller, disaster thriller, mystery thriller, romantic thriller, supernatural thriller, the list goes on. Since there are so many subgenres , it really makes it difficult for us to narrow in on one. It's even difficult to figure out where to begin. After talking it over, we decided that we want to implement horror in to our film, so we agreed on something along the lines of a supernatural thriller. We want our film to be suspenseful, with plenty of twists and turns, because obviously no one likes a movie that they can call everything out before it happens. 

As far as plot aspects go, the film will most likely be set in a gloomy setting, with dark and grey hues of color to represent this gloominess. The film will be dark, and will primarily take place during nighttime, like most scary movies do. Everyone knows that the stuff goes down at night. I want to be sure to include all of the ingredients to create a successful thriller , so I will be sure to have the main character carry baggage and create a struggle for them. Our main character will be someone you are drawn to root for, an underdog trying to overcome their struggle. 

        As I begin to plan out my film, the first order of business was to find out what genre would be the perfect fit. The most challenging part of this entire thing is the fact that you have to create something completely from scratch. However, I like that I have the freedom to think of whatever I want. In order to pinpoint what genre we would go with for our film opening , we started researching the top movies of 2016 through 2017. We looked for trends such as which genres occurred the most throughout the lists. We are striving to ensure that our film is successful and is highly thought of. I researched the top rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes. I chose this site because they are well known and reliable movie critics. After conducting my research, I found out that the top rated genres in 2016-2017 were drama and thrillers. While these are the most prominent genres, others spark my interest as well, like adventure, and comedy.

        After analyzing all of my options, and listing all of the pros and cons for each genre, my partner and I decided on a thriller. Not only is it one of the most popular genres at the time, but we also have a lot of different options to choose from and directions to go in. Just about everybody enjoys a good thriller, so my partner and I decided we could not go wrong by selecting that. Now that I have finally settled on a genre, I can shift my focus on to other things like the plot aspects, and planning.