Enjoy!
Sunday, April 7, 2019
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Written Reflection
The link below will take you to my written reflection essay on Google Docs. Enjoy!
Written Reflection Essay
Written Reflection Essay
Saturday, March 30, 2019
And The Rest
For scene two, I filmed the spilling of nail polish and the opening credit “Produced
by Sara Briones.” This proved to be the most difficult scene for me to film because
of its complexity and the acting skills that were required.
The scene was supposed to be a high angle shot of me as Paola who plays Margo,
painting my nails on a normal napkin. Suddenly, my alarm clock goes off, and I stop
painting my nails to grab the clock and see that it is almost time for first period to start.
Then, I grab all my essentials for school that are nearby (phone, wallet, scrunchies).
While I am rushing to grab everything, I accidentally knock over the white nail polish
and the napkin now has the words “Produced by Sara Briones” written on it. I wanted
to make it seem as if the words magically appeared.
One major issue was trying to act with only my hands. We didn’t want to show Margo’s
face until later, so it was important to act with only my hands. I had to somehow show
the audience that I was shocked at the time and was late for school. Some methods
I tried were shaking the clock or zooming into the clock.
Also, for the napkin part, I had an issue with changing the normal napkin with the one
that had the opening credit. While Margo was rushing to grab her things, I had to
simultaneously switch the napkins. This was difficult because there wasn’t enough
time to do both. Therefore, to solve this issue, I decided to zoom into the clock, cut
the recording, switch the napkins, start recording again from where we left off with
the clock, and then pan towards the napkin. I left camera fixed on the opening credit
for a couple seconds so that the audience could have enough time to read the
opening credit.
Scene three was the easiest to film. My brother helped me film this scene by
laying on the floor and film me grabbing my bag full of clothes to reveal the lit up
sign that says, “Edited by Isabella Rivera.” It only required two takes.
I was scared to film scene four because it required a mirror. I have heard that it is
difficult to film with a mirror due to the camera’s reflection. However, I surprisingly
had no issue with my mirror since it was angled in a way that it only showed the
reflection of a wall. I wrote the opening credit with the lipstick at an angle. This is
how it looked.
I only had to remove one picture that was blocking the clarity of the words
“Directed by Daniela Kim.” To clean my mirror, I used Windex to remove the lipstick.
So, overall scene four was no burden.
I will let you know how these scenes turn out when editing. Bye for now!
Scene One
The first scene is going to be with the shirt. Just a quick recap, this will be a point-of-
view shot of Margo lifting up a plain white t-shirt, but once in full view, the audience will
see that an opening credit will be on the shirt. I decided to write “Starring Paola Toro” in
the front in big letters and then “and Tomas Quilaqueo” in the back. This way each actor
gets their own screen time.
For color, I was originally going to use the back fabric marker to write the names, but I
thought this would be too boring on a plain white t-shirt. So, I thought of a system of
using the blue fabric marker for the title of job and the purple fabric marker for the actual
name of the individual. Here is a picture to clarify.
The reason is chose these colors is that I thought it mimicked the teenage moods
of sadness, which is blue, and purple for the teenage thinking that they are higher
than everyone else (since purple equates royalty.)
For the bag that Margo puts this shirt in, I was thinking to use my black swim bag and
use the side that does not show any logos.
I have yet to film this scene because I totally forgot that the nail polish scene is after
this scene and I, by accident, already painted my nails white when I needed my nails
to be bare for this scene.
I’ll let you know how this goes next time! Bye for now!
Supplies...Check!
Before I started filming, I needed some supplies first, so I went to Walgreens
and AC Moore. For the first scene I needed two white t-shirts (one as the normal
shirt and the other with the opening credit on it). I also needed fabric markers to
write on the opening credit shirt. After a couple minutes, I was able to find both.
Then, for the nail polish scene, I was originally going to use fake nails, but I forgot
that the fake nails I already had were dark blue. I tried painting white nail polish over
it, but you could still see the blue through it. Therefore, I decided just to paint my own
nails white. So, I went to Walgreens to pick up some white nail polish. These are the
ones I ended up finding.
For the third scene, I already had the light up sign, so I didn’t have to purchase anything
for this scene.
But for the fourth scene, I also picked up some cheap red lipstick to write on the
mirror in my room. This is the one I bought.
After I got all the materials, I just prepared each scene and got ready to film. I’ll let
you know how it turned out! Bye for now!
Let's Get Creative!
Now that we have decided our artistic scenes, it was time to film them. I was
excited because I had a lot of ideas that I thought would look really intriguing on
screen, so I couldn’t wait to implement them.
Since most of my group members were away on spring break, I decided to experiment
with the scenes and try filming them myself. There were four different opening credits
that we wanted to include in the beginning of our film opening; therefore we needed
four different artistic approaches. (We thought this was the perfect amount because
we didn’t want to have too many or too little.) Our first scene includes folding a shirt
into a bag; the next scene is spilling nail polish; and the third will be a cool sign that
lights up. It was interesting because I was actually missing one artistic approach, but
as I was trying to think of another cool way to implement the opening scene, I came
across this light up sign that I got for my birthday a couple years ago.
I figured I could rearrange the letters and write an opening credit on it. But anyways,
back to the scenes, the fourth one will have lipstick written on my mirror that is in my
room.
However, I still had to decide the order of the opening credits. I wasn’t sure which
goes first; does “Edited by” go before “Produced by” or vice versa? I don’t know. So,
of their credits. I learned that it goes “Starring,” “Produced by,” “Edited by,” and then
“Directed by.” For our opening film, we had decided before break that it would be
“Starring Paola Toro and Tomas Quilaqueo,” “Produced by Sara Briones,” “Edited
by Isabella Rivera,” and then “Directed by Daniela Kim.”
I’ll let you know how everything turns out! Bye for now!
Works Cited:
IMDb. “The Umbrella Academy.” IMDb.com. 2019.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Some Tweaks
Isabella and I had a great discussion about some changes to the artistic scenes of
the film opening in order to make it even more creative. Isabella suggested that as
Margo is packing, we can also show her getting ready for school. Some scenes that
we could include are while Margo is looking at her outfit for school in a mirror, there could
be an opening credit in the corner of the mirror written with lipstick. This is inspired from
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In addition to this, Margo could be painting her nails black to hint to her rebellious
nature; also, in this scene, she could suddenly realize that she is late to school, so
she spills the bottle on the floor. When the nail polish spills on the floor, we can write an
opening credit into the spilt nail polish. (I might have to spill the nail polish on a napkin;
this way it does not stain the floor.) The following image is the look we are going for.
Just to clarify, these scenes are in addition to the other clothing scenes we already
have. I will let you know how these scenes go next time! Bye for now!
Works Cited:
KC. “Screenshots of the Week: Lipstick on Mirror.” Aclassicmovieblog.com. 2009.
Wikimedia. “Portal:Comedy/Selected Picture.” Wikipedia.com. 2019.
Discussion Part 2
We met with our classmates again to hear feedback for our project. My group members
and I had to separate and go into different groups again. Therefore, I joined a group of
girls who had a mixture of film openings and magazines. It was interesting to see
everyone’s projects; each person had a different story to tell and I was excited to see
their results.
On my project, the girls really liked the plot of running away from home. They offered
some timing advice by making sure I try to get everything filmed during Spring Break
and try to start editing. Most individuals who had chosen to do film openings had already
filmed everything and were just editing their project. It made me realize that I had to
buckle down and make sure I am productive during the break.
In addition to this, the girls offered some costume advice for Margo. Instead of the typical
black attire to reflect the rebellious personality, they suggested that I could look at edgy
Pinterest outfits, such as a white crop top and black jeans with a red flannel tied around
the waist. Although I liked this idea, we had already filmed a majority of the scenes of
Margo wearing her edgy outfit, so I do not think this is likely to implement.
I will work on buying the fake nails and start filming ASAP. I will update you on this next
week! Bye for now!
Being Flexible
We were supposed to finish filming our school scenes on Thursday (March 21); everyone was prepared with their clothes, and I had brought my camera to film. This was the only day we could film because our main star, Paola, was going to be gone the entire Spring Break. However, we totally forgot that we were doing group discussions in class that day. So we had to adjust our schedule and figure out how to film the opening scenes without Paola.
trivia section that Reese Witherspoon was not available to film the opening scene, so the
director put a stunt double in place since none of the opening scenes showed her face
(“Legally Blonde”). Since we are put in a similar situation, I could pose as Paola in the
opening scenes because our opening scenes also do not show Paola’s face. In order to
achieve this, I am planning to buy fake white nails to match Paola’s hands throughout the
film opening.
Due to Paola’s absence during Spring Break, I could film the opening scenes myself or with
Isabella if she is available. I will let you know how these scenes turn out next time! Bye for
now!
Works Cited:
IMDb. “Legally Blonde.” IMDb.com. 2019
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250494/Listen
For sound, we wanted to play background music that would reflect the mood of the
scene. For example, “the ominous "bum-bum, bum-bum" theme music that plays before
the appearance of the shark in ‘Jaws’ or the shrieking strings during the shower scene of
‘Psycho’ both create an inescapable atmosphere” (“Importance of Music in Movies”).
Similarly, in the beginning, when Margo is packing her clothes “to go to school” (in actuality,
she is running away from home), we wanted to create an upbeat, happy mood to make it
seem as if Margo was a girly girl who was perfect; we decided to use pop music for this
scene. However, we are still deciding the song for this scene; our options are “Smile” by
In the next scene, when Margo reveals her true self by changing her girly clothes to black
attire, we wanted to use an edgy alternative song to reflect her rebellious nature. For this scene,
we decided to use the song “Copycat” by Billie Eilish. We are aware that we need royalty free
music, but we have just figured out that we can cover songs. Therefore, we asked our friend
Anoushka to cover the songs for us.
attire, we wanted to use an edgy alternative song to reflect her rebellious nature. For this scene,
we decided to use the song “Copycat” by Billie Eilish. We are aware that we need royalty free
music, but we have just figured out that we can cover songs. Therefore, we asked our friend
Anoushka to cover the songs for us.
I personally asked her to record the song on Voice Memos on the iPhone and try to send it
to me by the end of Spring Break, so hopefully, it will be finished by then. I will update you
next weekon how the songs go! Bye for now!
to me by the end of Spring Break, so hopefully, it will be finished by then. I will update you
next weekon how the songs go! Bye for now!
Works Cited:
IMDb. “Legally Blonde.” IMDb.com. 2019
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250494/
Redman, Bridgette. “Importance of Music in Movies.” Ourpasttimes.com. 2017 September
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Conflicts
On the second day of filming, which was the next class (March 15th), we had run into
a couple issues. First off, Sara was absent, and she was an extra in all the school scenes
that we filmed. So, if we continued to film without her, it would ruin continuity. In addition to
this, Tomas had gotten a haircut, which also ruined our continuity due to his change in
appearance. Therefore, we made a decision to refilm all the scenes we had done the previous
day.
However on the second day of filming, it had started to rain, so it took a while to film the parking
lot scene. We had to patiently wait for the rain to stop since it was too loud to hear Tomas’s line,
and we were worried that the rain would damage the camera. Since we had to wait a long time
for the rain to stop, we were only able to film the Jeep scene and did not have time to film the
school scenes in the Wave. So, next class, we will have to finish filming all the school scenes
again, and we are praying that the desks are still in the Wave when we go to film again. I will let
you know how everything goes next time.
Bye for now!
Lights, Camera, Action!
Lights, Camera, Action
It’s time for the real deal… Filming! March 13th was our first day of filming, and it was
pretty exciting. We were planning to film the last scene of Margo and Liam in the car first
and then filming the school scenes because Tomas was only available during school
hours. Paola made sure to wear her black crop top, jeans, and high tops to school, and I
made sure to charge my camera and bring it to school.
made sure to charge my camera and bring it to school.
In the beginning, we had some issues with the camera because the SIM card that was
installed did not have enough storage (only 64 MB!), but I was lucky to have packed an
extra SIM card with GB this time. So, we quickly switched the SIM cards and went on to
film.
My group members, Tomas, and I went to the parking lot to film the last scene of Margo and
Liam in the car. We decided to film this scene in Tomas’s Jeep since it was aesthetically
pleasing and the easiest to film in since it had a lot of space. I sat in the trunk and positioned
the camera to only show the backs of Tomas and Paola. Here is an image of what the setup
looked like.
After filming this scene, we walked to the Wave to film the school scenes. We were lucky
because there were numerous desks still in the Wave from SAT testing and it was quiet;
therefore, we took advantage of these conditions and arranged the desks to make it look
like a classroom. While I filmed, we had extras (Sara, Rafa, and Isabella) sitting behind
them to make it seem like a crowded classroom.
Also, we have decided to film the opening artistic scenes at Paola’s house during the
weekend or privilege. I will let you know how filming went next time!
Bye for now!
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