Group meeting

 Group meeting

On Tuesday, we were put into groups by Ms. Stoklosa in order to discuss our projects so far, and give each other advice that we may have. I explained to my group my science fiction film and the concept behind it, and here is some of the feedback I got.

My group seemed to think that my idea had a solid foundation, but they all agreed that it needed more substance to it. I explained to them the outline of my opening scene, which would be a girl writing equations that lead to time travel at her desk, but they all said that I would need to add more context to make the point of her work clear, and not just random equations. For example, one suggestion was to add a ticking time clock sound to symbolize her internal clock, which would start to hint towards the idea of time travel. They also believe that more needs to happen in my film opening than just a girl writing equations and talking to her boss, which I agree with. After discussing with my group, we agree we need to add in more little details that build context, like the people in my group suggested. 

I was also recommended a couple of titles, mostly ones that consist of just one word, that could work with my film. For example, "The parallel" and "Illusion". I really liked how simple these titles were, because they did not give away the plot of the movie, but were intriguing. 

However, the group left me questioning something really important that I need to consider in my film opening, which is the one thing I want to leave my audience with. When talking to them, I honestly realized that I could not think of any points that my story is purposing to leave the viewer with. This is definitely something I have to work on and figure out in the near future. Overall, it was a really insightful day and I enjoyed the feedback and help we all provided for each other. 

Main character

 Good news! My team finally took the time to sit down and discuss what we wanted our film opening to be about, and what it would consist of. A lot of progress and planning was made, so let me break it down. 

As mentioned previously, we ultimately decided on focusing on a time travel theme in our film. Our main character is a genius who came up with the perfect mathematic equations to be able to transport themselves into different points of time in the universe. We want this person to be working for a top-secret organization that deals with this advanced technology.

Although we still need to figure out the logistics of how this film opening is going to be made and the shots that will go into it, we decided to start with establishing our character.

The first thing we decided on was whether our character was going to be male or female. We were thinking of male, but ultimately decided to go the female route, since majority of time travel movies that have been made follow a male character, and we want to create something different. The next step was creating the character's name. We decided on the name Tina, because of its simplicity, and how it does create any initial biases on the character's personality. We planned out a few things that would be visibly important to Tina in her life just by the opening shot. For example, we decided she would have a cat sitting right besides her as she is writing the different equations. We also decided she would have a mug with tea. All her papers are scattered and written all over, which are meant to show how fast her mind works and how many different equations she has been coming up with over time. 

As for deciding on Tina's appearance, meaning her costume design, makeup, etc, we want her to have a very specific wardrobe throughout the movie, which is polo shirts and simple, slicked back hair. We chose not to give her anything fashionable to show that her main concern in life is figuring out these equations that she has been invested in for many years, and that she does not give much thought to her appearance and sticks to practical clothing. The makeup would not be a typical makeup look, but we discussed using eyeshadow to create some dark circles under her eye to indicate tiredness and how she overworks herself. 

Examples: 

How to develop lighting schemes

Hi blog!

As I mentioned in the last post, my group and I came to the final decision that we want to make a film opening that relates to time travel. Based on the science fiction film opening I studied in the last post, Interstellar, I noticed the role that the dark, mysterious lighting in the interview room, as well as the man's bedroom played in creating mystery and a feeling of unease.

This is why today, I focused on specifically researching how lighting can change the feeling behind a shot, as well as how to develop lighting schemes. 

What is the importance of lighting in film productions?

Lighting is a way to help incorporate an ambience and communicate the feeling of the scene or setting of the shot to the audience. If a film had all the same lighting throughout, it would give off no emotion to the viewer, and end up being a poor production. The use of light can also draw the viewers attention to where you intend it to be. Instead of the whole room being well lit, a brighter light can be cast upon the main character during specific scenes. Just a simple use of shadows or brightness can distinguish an "evil" character from a "good" one.

Darker colors, such as red, blacks, and purples, suggest danger or evil.

Light colors, like whites, yellows, and other pastels suggest innocence and a nostalgic feel. However, yellow is also often used to portray insanity in a character.

One of the most well known and loved directors of all time, Wes Anderson, relies heavily on lighting to make his films. He typically utilizes lighting to create the "dreamlike" feel that most of his movies have. For example, in the movie "The Grand Budapest Hotel", the inside of the hotel has very soft and warm lighting, with a lot of red and pink hues. Although this creates a comforting vibe, the red also adds a sense of mystery and unease. As the film evolves, the hues change to darker green and blues, which intensify the mystery of the movie. 

How I am going to incorporate this into my own opening: 

The initial feel I want from my movie is a sense of mystery. My plan is to introduce the character, who will be the one coming up with equations that lead to time travel, in a mostly dark room, with an reddish light cast on him. I feel that this will show best his intense studies, as well as how secretive they are, because they are being done in a dark, underground room. Red is known for not only creating a sense of mystery in movies, but also giving a character an "evil" or secretive feel. 

Plot

 There are 9 plots that science fiction movies typically fall under

1. Time travel

2. Robots

3. Human vs. nature

4. Artificial intelligence 

5. Apocalypses/ post-apocalypses

6. Dystopia

7. Space travel

8. Alien invaders

9. Strange, fictional lands

Today I focused on researching a movie opening from science fiction that has a plot surrounding time travel, or predicting the future, since that is something we want to include in the plot of our film.

Interstellar film opening

The movie begins with a documentary style, showing an elderly woman discussing her past experiences and memories. Right off the bat, this gave me a sense of curiosity and mystery, because it is unclear to the viewer what the woman being interviewed is referring to, and it makes you want to find out. It is also clear in this opening that the world they are depicting in the movie is facing a lot of environmental challenges. The elderly people being interviewed specifically mention the dust storms and clouds of dirt they remember, and scenes of dry, desert looking land is shown to give context to what that environment looks like. This provides the problem that the characters in the movie will likely face and have to fight against,  which is the environmental problem of dust storms.

 There is also an introduction to characters, showing a man and his daughter interacting, who are more than likely the main characters of the film. The man is shown looking out the window at the world, shortly after being awakened by his daughter, and how it has been affected by the environmental problems. He is clearly stressed out, and shown sweating profusely, which shows immediately that he is going through something. The sounds in this opening are also notable, because of how many varying sounds there are just in the first few minutes of the film. Specifically harsh sounds of wind and aggressive planes flying are used, and as the man looks out the window, foreboding music is played. 

What I took from this opening that can be incorporated into my own is the immediate introduction of characters, as well as starting to give context in a way that does not give the whole plot away. Just off this introduction, it is not obvious that the movie deals with time travel, but it is obvious that the world is different than what we see in real life, and that there is an underlying problem that will be solved in the movie. 

Technical elements

 " The best science fiction movies and TV shows transport us to other worlds and keep our imaginations fresh "

When it comes to the technical elements of science fiction movies, I've learned that special effects are of upmost importance. Special effects are "techniques and technologies that create illusions or enhance visual elements in a movie". In order to successfully portray a world more advanced than what we currently live in, such as one that includes time travel (Back to the future, 1985), or aliens (Starship troopers, 1997), there is no choice but to utilize special effects in post-production. 

There are two types of special effects: ones that leave the crowd questioning how the editors achieved the effect, and ones that go unnoticed, but subtly enhance the movie. 

What can they be used for?

1. Creating a characters look and persona

2. Making fake and fantastical environments realistic

3. Creating a world where "impossible" ideas exist

4. Showing incredible stunts and tricks

Realistically, I know that my strong suit is not editing or making special effects through technology, so I want to focus on the many other, more achievable forms of special effect. For example, props, makeup, and prosthetics. 

Although it can go unnoticed, makeup and costume design has been used since the beginning times of the film industry in order to create a character, and show the viewers what they are like. These elements can even change throughout the movie to show the characters story or mood changing and progressing.

 Using Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind as an example again, the main female character of the movie, Clementine, constantly changes her hair color throughout the movie, and each one is meant to represent a different "setting" of the movie. When her hair color is blue, the movie is in the present, or "real world". When her hair color was orange, the film was inside of joel's mind. And when her hair was green, we were shown clips of Joel when he first met her. This is a subtle and doable special effect with my limited resources, but it added so much context and uniqueness to the movie. 

Following a more recent production, Euphoria, a very popular series among my peers on HBO max, makeup was used on almost every character, more than in other films. Although it is not a science fiction show, I can still take inspiration from how the makeup developed each character's image. Kat, a bold character from the film, is always wearing bold eyeliner and big gems on her face, which match her big, confident personality. Jules, on the other hand, wears softer makeup with a lot of pastel colors in them, which add to her soft and sweet persona. 

Sources: 

https://thedailyhowl.org/1617/creativity/the-effects-of-makeup-in-film/

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-are-special-effects-in-movies/

Research

Research time! As someone who does not have the most knowledge on film openings (or how to make quality films in general), researching all the different aspects of what I want in my film is important.

Starting off, I need to look at genre. I have been most drawn to science fiction adventure movies, but specifically ones that have an underlying meaning that relates to real life in them. I chose to research two movies under this genre in detail, Eternal sunshine of the Spotless mind (2004) and Everything, everywhere, all at once (2022).

Although these films are very different from each other, it really shows how diverse the science fiction genre can be. While researching, I came across a very detailed slideshow on Science Fiction Genre conventions. I learned that science fiction scenes are actually very similar to shots from horror movies, which is interesting to me because, contrary to most people, I am not a big fan of horror. The prezi slideshow explained how both genres make sure to show a "large expanse of area" in their shots, in order to establish that the world is different than what the viewer's reality is, for example a futuristic or dystopian city. The editing in science fiction films is also very important, because a world that is realistic has to somehow be portrayed, despite never being able to exist in real life. Science fiction films also typically follow a very specific narrative, where the "protagonist" of the film is trying to beat some sort of outside force.

 Everything, Everywhere, all at once is one of my favorite examples of a science fiction movie, and in general one of my favorite films of all time. The film follows a Chinese-American mother as she travels through many different dimensions that portray her different existences in different universes, where she has to find a way to connect them all and save herself. After reading on the filming process of the film, I learned that much of it is shot at a very high frame rate in order to create the surreal look. The visual effects were also vital to the success of the film. Curtis wanted the characters to be as realistic as possible, despite being in such unrealistic and "magical" or "fantasy " worlds.

 

 Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is directed by Micheal Gondry, and can also be categorized as a type of science fiction. The film is about the love of a man and woman, and how they each undergo a medical procedure to rid each other's memories of their relationship. The diversity of this film and the creativity behind it is one of the main reasons I chose to go with the genre of science fiction.

 

 

After continuing my research, I realized that what draws me to these types of movies is the dream-like imagery, and the unconventional storytelling. Nothing about these movies is predictable, and every scene is clearly put in for a purpose. One of the processes I found out about the behind-the-scenes of the movie is that the script are written in a non-chronological order. They wrote various scenes without a specific idea of the order yet, and then carefully pieced it together in a way that made sense for the movie.  

This concept is interesting to me. I want to start by writing any scenes that come to mind, without worrying what “leads up to it” or what is coming after. The sequencing of the scenes can come later, but I want to start by focusing on the creativity of the shots.

Sources:

https://prezi.com/o-lfnomvssem/science-fiction-genre-conventions/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Everywhere_All_at_Once

https://redcouch.pictures/behind-the-scenes-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind/