Sounds

 While I wait for this incoming weekend to finish filming and refilm some of my other scenes I started looking for sounds to use in my project. During my group meeting with other students from my class, we shared tips with each other and shared our projects, and asked any questions that we might have had about our choices regarding the portfolio project. One of my classmates in my group mentioned Epidemic Sound. I looked it up to see more of what it was about and it is a website that has a variety of high-quality music and sound effects to use for videos, streams, and podcasts. You have to pay for a subscription but luckily for me, they have a free trial that lasts a month so that is more than enough time to use it to the best of my ability and look up the perfect sound for my short film. I started looking for more feel-good music, the type of background music that is usually included in short films without any lyrics. It was hard for me to describe what I am looking for because it was just an idea and vision that I have in my head. I also looked for sounds on YouTube because that is where I've found most of my sounds and music for past projects. I thought it was easier trying to convey what I was looking for but I did not quite find what I was looking for. 

Filming Day 1

 This past weekend I started filming for my short film. It went smoothly except the one thing that kept bothering me was the quality of my phone camera. I would be able to use a friend of mine’s phone but it would be at a later date and I did not want to wait that long. Here are some images from filming day. I’m going to use some of these images for the social media page because I love how they turned out and I think they capture the essence of the short film. 

Social Media

 One of the other big components of my portfolio project is the social media account to advertise my short film. I created an account on Instagram for the social media section. This is actually a great tool for my target audience because as I had mentioned before, my target audience is mainly young adults but it ranges from fifteen to thirty-year-olds. I can use the Instagram account to create a cohesive brand for my short film as I try to connect this brand between all three components: the short film, the social media account, and the postcard. It is an opportunity to engage and interact with my audience and try to reach a larger number of people than I wouldn't otherwise be able to promote it to without the use of the internet. I can entice my audience and diversify my social-media posts with well-crafted information, quotes, still images from your film, and the link to view your film. 

Using posts such as images from parts of my short film gives the audience a look into the short film without giving away too much, but grabbing their attention. I am able to incorporate images and talk about certain things on my social media account that is related to the theme of my short film but I was not able to explicitly include them in the short film. Behind the scenes, posts are another thing that I have included in my social media account because I think it gives a more personal look into the project and what it is all about, making it more humane in a way. It illustrates the process and how everything came out to be. 

Schedule

 Now that I have most things figured out I created a schedule to better organize myself and make sure I am on track. This Thursday I am meeting with my friend who is going to be acting on my short film to take pictures for the short film. My filming days are going to take place on Friday and Saturday as I have the entire day off to film as many shots as I need to. While I was waiting to schedule a day to meet up, I started working on the layout for the post cards to have it ready and envision what I want. 

Coming Up With a Title

 After having done this for various projects, I can say that this is sometimes the hardest part. I want to capture the essence of my short film and illustrate what it is about but it's so difficult to do in in so few words. The title should reflect the story and journey of the character, while hunting the audience at what the short fim is about. 

I am taking these questions into account:

• What’s the genre of the short film?
• What’s the short film about?
• Who’s in the short film?
• What’s the problem/conflict in the short film?
• Where does your short film take place?

These are some ideas that I came up with:

- Desiderium 

- Life’s Joy 

- Lost in Life 

Advertising Postcards Research

While I am almost done with my storyboard I needed to take breaks because I can't do everything at once so I decided to do some research on one of the components for my portfolio project. The advertising postcard is extremely important in promoting and giving the audience a first look at your short film. Before starting any research the first app that came to mind that I would be using was Canva. I am familiar with Canva since I have used it several times in the past for various projects, but I wanted to do more research and see if there are any better options. 

First I did some research on postcards themselves to be more familiar with them and see why people use them exactly. They are vital because they give the audience the first look into what the story is about. You need to grab people's attention with it and make them intrigued, while also designing it to be an embodiment of what your short film represents. The design has to be easy to look at and understand what you are seeing so the image chosen matters profoundly because everything else kind of revolves around it and the image has to be a representation of what it is about. 

 Based on the research I did, some important information to include on a postcard is:

- Title

- Nomination and selection 

- Director/Producer/Actors name(s)

- URL of the films website (in my case I will probably include the social media page URL)

https://www.slideshare.net/RichieBatey/film-festival-postcard-research-121446703

https://www.unifiedmanufacturing.com/blog/film-postcards-festival/

Screenplay Software

I mentioned in a previous post while I was doing research on drama that one of the websites provided a link to a free screenwriting software and it provided a picture with an example of what it looks like. It is a great tool with many resources and options available. When I first created my account and selected to start a new project, it gave me various optional features that were included. This is great to help me keep organized and give me more tools to incorporate into my process while keeping everything in one place. I was pleasantly surprised with how many options they give you no matter what you are doing, such as when I was creating the script it asks you if you want it to be a screenplay or freeform document. 

While I was in the process of creating a file for my portfolio project, I was reminded that I have to come up with a title for it. I've been labeling everything "Portfolio Project" that I even forgot to give it an official name. I really need to get into the habit of writing everything that comes to mind down, I remember that for some time I had a name in mind that would fit this short film and I was somewhat set on this title, but it has escaped my mind and I can't seem to remember it. 

I did read an article from studio binder with other screenwriting software that was also free in case I did not like theirs. They provided detailed descriptions of these other options such as Final Draft 10, Movie Magic Screenwriter, Writer Duet, Highland Software, etc. 

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/screenwriting-software/ 

Setting + Shotlist

I created a shot list on separate google docs with some shots and scenes that I am envisioning. I find mine to be very disorganized because it is more difficult for me to describe in words what I have in mind and have it be translated well onto paper. Once I finish my storyboard I'm sure I am going to have more shots and specific scenes that are not included right now on it because it enables me to piece the scenes better together. Also, I wasn't sure if I should have separated them into the three acts to be more organized so they are just into one big list but maybe I will do that later so it is more concise. 

I want to focus the story to give the vibes of mundane life in the suburbs so I'm going to film everything in my city, but I do have a few places in the mind of where specifically I am going to shoot.

- My house

    - bedroom 

    - bathroom 

    -kitchen 

- Car

- Neighborhood 

- School 

Overview

I have finalized the broad idea of the story into the three acts and began working on the shot list and storyboard. It is just a feel-good short film to bring light to how most people growing up have this mindset that they have to find their one job that is their purpose and what they are meant to be doing in life when I think it truly is about the mundane but joyful moments. This is more of a rough draft, so when I am creating the shot list it will de more detailed and contain more specific scenes. 

 Act One:

- protagonist wakes up

- shows list with her possible "purposes"

- doing these activities and seeing which one gives her a spark 

Act Two:

-  protagonist experiences the low parts of her day 

- struggles of finding her purpose and becomes anxious 

- crosses out everything from this list 

Act Three: 

- as she goes to sleep and closes her eyes 

- display of mundane moments throughout her day 

- she realizes there is no single purpose or path one has to take 

Target Audience

 One of the most important aspects of any part of media or filmmaking is the target audience. I learned that if you know who you target your brand or product to, you can focus better on how you can improve and market whatever it is you want to. For my short film, the target audience is mainly young adults ages 14-early 20s because the plot of the story follows a young adult graduating and feeling lost and anxious about what the future holds. While I believe that is my main target audience, there are other aspects and themes to my story that applies to any living person struggling with changes and uncertainty. 

Looking at the aspect of the genre, young adults will also be the target audience for coming-of-age films and teenagers around the age of 12 to 18. They can relate to this genre better since most of them are currently in this stage of growing up into adulthood. Everyone can reflect on their own experiences based on the message and experiences the characters go through. With it being a drama short film too, a broader audience can also be appealed to it. Drama films vary on the target audience because it is a very broad genre and it usually depends on the sub-genre of the film such as if it is a period drama, romantic drama, fantasy drama, etc. This will attract an older group of people of any gender because of the broad group. Still, the main target audience will be teenagers and young adults. 

Since young adults are mainly going to be interested in my short film, this will benefit me in the long run when I make the social media page because that is the main age group for social media usage. 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/471370/us-adults-who-use-social-networks-age/ 

Drama Research

I chose to conduct some research on the genre of drama considering I plan to incorporate some elements of drama into my own short film. Dramas follow a clearly defined narrative plot structure,  portraying real-life scenarios or extreme situations with emotionally driven characters. According to this article by No Film School that talks about the genre of drama in film and television, the main character usually has a "strong moral stance or view of the world around them. the characters in these films are always dealing with what life has to offer." 

In the short film History of  Civilization by Zhannat Alshanova, the audience follows the emotional journey of the protagonist dealing with her decision to move out of the country and leave behind everything that she knows, while having to deal with people's comments on her decision. The story is a great drama example of dealing with the emotional components of this genre and how the character and her emotions drive the plot of the story. The conflicts and struggles she is facing within herself but also with other outside factors are taking a toll on her, but ultimately she is left alone to make these decisions and figure out what is best for her. I thought the short film does a great job at illustrating her internal struggles and I interpreted it as this being the most challenging part of her journey, having these thoughts and problems with herself. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-ViEQo1suA

The link below lists some short films that are sorted based on genre, as well as some insight into short films and tips on writing a story for one. The website also links a free screenwriting software that I want to further look into to see if I can use it to write the script for mine. I have yet to do research on apps and software for screenwriting, but it seemed easy and practical to use. 

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/best-short-films/#drama-short-films

Some other films that fall under the drama genre:

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-identify-film-genres#13-classic-movie-genres

https://nofilmschool.com/drama-genre-film-and-television

New Story Outline

 As I'm coming up on my last three months of high school I've found myself extremely anxious for the future. Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to meet new people and move to a different place but it is very bittersweet leaving your hometown. I keep complaining that I cannot wait to move out and that I'm just getting tired of things here, and everything being repetitive. Well, while I was sitting in my car at my school parking lot, I was feeling extremely nostalgic and appreciative of my school and my routine.  This inspired me to create a new story for my short film.

My story follows a young adult dealing with the uncertainty of the future and feeling like she is running out of time, this causes her to only look at the negative things that are happening to her throughout her day. At the end of the day as the protagonist is going to bed and she closes her eyes. Flashback scenes to mundane but happy moments of her day appear, contrasting to all the bad stuff that happened to her during her "bad" day. This focuses on the aspect that there is happiness in "normal" moments and she is able to see that even though her life is is difficult right now, she is going to miss it when it is gone. I created a mood board to have my ideas in place and have a general outlook of what I am envisioning. I'm hoping to compare it to the final product and see how what goes on in my mind translates into film and social media. 

The struggles of growing up and feeling like you are running out of time, and not appreciating the present enough 

Setbacks + More Research

I should have known better!! 

I tried doing a test run of filming with my dog to see how it would go before I finalized anything. It is safe to say that I will be changing my short film idea because it was extremely difficult to have her cooperate. I really loved this idea but not I’m sure how much patience I would have the day of filming with her and if I would be able to film some of the shots I had in mind. While she is a very well-behaved dog that listens, she hates staying still for long especially when I’m standing right in front of her and she just wants attention. I obviously really wanted to bring this story to life because it is something that resonates with me a lot, it would mean so much more but I think this would create more problems than what the end result is worth. 

To get more ideas flowing again, I spent a majority of my time in class watching other short films that contain a moral message or life lesson of sorts to get inspiration and see what kind of short film I wanted to produce. The first video I watched was all animated shorts so they had more creative freedom to create their short films. One of the short films included was titled Snack Attack. The short film follows the story of an elderly woman who wrongly assumes the young man next to her is stealing from her, showing him no patience and just assuming he is in the wrong, only to find out she was mistaken all along. It does a great job at making the audience believe one thing and towards the very end, showing that plot twist and giving another outlook into the story. That is the kind of short film I want to create, not have the theme be revealed until the very end. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0EUuxSOsss

The second short film I watched was Different. Just like the previous short film mentioned, it contained barely any dialogue. It relied on the background noise and foley sounds to emphasize the character's actions and emotions. This is influencing me to include little to no dialogue on mine, so the audience can conclude the message on their own and interpret it mainly from what they are seeing. I also noticed it is very common for short films to not have any dialogue. I will do more research on this because now I am intrigued to see if there is a reason most short films don't contain dialogue. Different also does a tremendous job at making the audience believe one thing just to reveal a plot twist at the end. I was extremely shocked when I first watched it because it was not the direction I thought it was going, but I loved the message it gave the audience and how simple but emotional the piece was.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu24PZIbkoY

Here are some other short films I watched that I loved:

A Moving Story About Gratitude - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tznztJVsW9E

The Painter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSZjVrvzsMQ

See You Soon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ZYsDbQUFE