Representation

Hey blog! Today's post is going to discuss representation in our film. The Costales family is a Hispanic-Italian family, which is typically an underrepresented group in the film industry. Aria's father, Lorenzo, is from Venezuela. Aria's mother, Giulia, is from Italy but speaks Spanish since she lived in Venezuela for most of her life. The goddess in our film opening, Kali, is a goddess that is widely recognized in Hinduism. She is known as the destroyer of evil forces in Hinduism and is also called the Divine Mother. Aria's mother, Giulia, portrays a group of people that are also typically underrepresented in the film industry. Giulia is a powerful businesswoman, and has a lot of money. This is different from how most wealthy women are portrayed in the film industry; they are usually portrayed as people who receive money from their spouses and do not work at all. This is the opposite for Giulia, since she has her own job and her source of income is not her husband. Aria's at-home situation is portrayed throughout the film as the main reason why she wants to save her family from being killed. Since her parents are both powerful business people, they are being framed for fraud and being threatened to be killed. In reality, they are actually innocent, which is why Kali wants to help Aria take down the evil people who framed and are threatening to kill her parents.

Characters!

Hey blog! In today's post I will be discussing the roles of our main characters in our film and their personality traits/characteristics. Here are the main characters:

 Aria Costales:

• Main female character
• Only child
• Reserved
• Wants to save her family; they are all that she has

Kali:

• Goddess
• Wants to help out Aria
• Her devotees view her as a mother figure; this is how she appears to Aria

Giulia Costales:

• Mother to Aria
• Businesswoman
• Works a lot, but still cares for her family

Lorenzo Costales:

• Businessman
• Travels and works a lot
• Cares a lot for his family despite his absence

Update?

Hey blog! So, I finally have an update for you guys! I don't exactly have a finalized idea of what we are doing yet, but I have a slight idea of where I want our film opening to go. After discussing with my partners (virtually, of course) we have decided to change our film opening entirely. This is because most of our previous film opening was going to be filmed outside, which ultimately would not have been able to be done due to Dunkin Donuts being closed and our parents not letting us go out. While our old film opening was under the action category, our new film would most likely fall under the thriller category. Here are some of the main topics of our new film opening:

- A goddess who only appears whenever our main female character gets sleep paralysis
- A girl who's family is in deep danger


The goddess in our film is seen as a mother figure and is known as a destroyer of evil forces! The goddess is supposed to help our main character escape the danger that her family is facing by giving her clues and assisting her whenever she gets sleep paralysis. This film opening also will allow us to film mainly at home, which is all that we are able to do right now.

Something?

Hey blog! So I know that for the past couple of posts I haven't really given you guys any good news, but some good news is that my group is not disbanding and we are still working together on the project. I also have an idea of what demographic I want our film opening to cater towards. Since our original film opening's target audience was young female adults aged 15-21, I would like our new film opening to appeal to this target audience as well. Now, you're probably wondering why this was the target audience for our previous film, so allow me to enlighten you:

- Action genre
- Main characters are 18-21 years old in the narrative world
- Real ages of actors were 16-17 years old
- Two main characters are female

Along with this, the main female characters in our film were supposed to be stronger than the male villains in the film, which is another reason why our film opening was supposed to appeal to this demographic. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to make a film at home that appeals to this target audience, but I will figure it out and update you guys when I have some ideas.

Ugh.

Hey blog. This virus is ruining everything! Spring break, my grades, and just life in general. Unfortunately, I have no updates on what my group and I are going to work on instead of our original idea for the project. While Dunkin' Donuts isn't closed, the safest thing to do is to stay home and work on the project from home. This is really putting us behind because everything we needed for our original idea had already been planned out. Since one of my good friends works at Dunkin' Donuts, she was going to provide us with some props that we were going to need for our film and make sure that us filming there was okay with her manager. I'm telling you, this virus is ruining everything. I also don't know how we're going to get any actors to be in our film since all of the people that were going to act in our film are also practicing social distancing. The point of this blog post is to tell you all that I've got nothing. I feel like I'm experiencing writer's block right now. I will update you guys this week with new information that I get in regards to our project.

It's Corona Time

Hey blog! Well, I'm sure as you all know, there's a virus called COVID-19 going around. This virus has closed school and a lot of other public facilities, and many people have been placed on mandatory lockdowns. While Florida isn't under a mandatory lockdown, I am still practicing social distancing so that I don't get sick. Now I'm not making this post to make it seem like I'm just blabbering about a virus that all of you already know about, I'm making it because this virus has reaaaalllly put us behind schedule. Not only are we behind schedule, but I think we're going to have to come up with a new idea entirely. Only one of my partners, Paola, is allowed to leave the house. Juli and I are not allowed to leave the house since we are practicing social distancing. Since we aren't really allowed to meet up and work on the project, we have decided that we are going to do a group FaceTime call so that we can work on what we need to do. Anyways, I will update you guys accordingly with whatever we decide to do for our project now.

Hey blog! I have great news for today's post since I know we've been behind schedule this whole week. My group and I have finally found a Dunkin Donuts that we can for sure film at and the props that we will need for the film have also been provided by the Dunkin Donuts. For one of our scenes, we are going to need a bunch of empty donut boxes that we can place money inside of. Since one of my good friends works at the Dunkin Donuts we are going to film at, she told me that her manager has no problem with letting us film there and that we will be able to use some donut boxes as props. Finding a Dunkin Donuts to film at was one of the most important things we needed to do, and we've got that down! Another thing I've also been working on is the screenplay. This is also coming along nicely and I should be done with it by the end of this week since our film opening is not going to be very dialogue-driven. Once the screenplay is done, the process of filming will be a lot easier. One thing I have been particularly worried about is the license request form I sent to Universal Music Group to obtain the rights to use the song Holy Moly. I know the process takes a while, but I just want to know if I'm going to need to choose a different song for this project. Another song I requested from Universal Music Group is the song Daffodils by Mark Ronson and Tame Impala. I would want to use this song for our opening scene while Cris and Aria are doing their homework. This song would also be good for marketing because most "indie" kids in Gen Z LOVE Tame Impala (including myself). I'm Not saying I consider myself as an indie kid, I just really love Tame Impala.

Raincheck?

Hi blog! Unfortunately once again my group was not able to meet today to work on the project. We are all very busy and we don't have rides most of the time, so it has been quite hard to meet up. Luckily, next week finding a ride will not be a problem since I can use my sister's car next week. Although we are behind schedule, we already know who is going to play the two female leads and what equipment and props we will need to use for this film. For this film, we are going to need a tripod and a steadicam. The steadicam is essential so that we can film scenes with a lot of action in them without the camera wobbling. The main issues we are having right now are trying to find a day to meet up without any problems and finding an actor to play the male Cris. For this character, we are trying to find someone that is tall and intimidating and matches the overall description of Cris well. I never realized that none of my male friends are neither tall nor intimidating.  Another thing we have is the camera that we are going to be using to film. For this film opening, we will be using a Nikon D3500 as provided by my friend Shera. I will attach a photo of the camera below and the attachments that come with it.

Hi blog! Unfortunately, my group and I were not able to meet up yesterday to work on the project because of personal issues, so we are a little bit off schedule. Good news though, we most likely are going to meet up this Sunday when everyone in our group can meet up. One thing that we really need to work on and establish is a schedule for the people who we want to act in the film opening. A lot of people are going away for spring break, so this week we need to establish a schedule with all of the actors to have a for sure idea of when we can begin filming. Here's a revised list of what we for sure will need to accomplish this Sunday during our group meeting:

- Finish screenplay
- Revise and create a schedule for actors
- Gather film equipment
- Create ad for beginning scene when Aria is on her phone
- START FILMING!!

We have already started working on the screenplay, and we have also figured out who is going to act in the film opening. The only thing that has really gotten in our way with meeting up is the fact that this time of the year is usually the busiest. Between the SAT, spring break, and preparing for AP exams, this time of the year is hectic for everyone and is really getting in the way.

Group Meeting

Hi blog! Today in class Mrs. Stoklosa put us into groups so that we could all bounce ideas off of our peers in relation to our project. My group members helped me come to the conclusion that the film opening doesn't have to have a lot of scenes, and what we have so far may be enough.With action films especially, we don't want to have too much dialogue and we don't want to make whatever dialogue we have too redundant. My partners and I were concerned that we may not have enough content to reach the 2-minute minimum that is required for the film opening, so this group meeting helped me be a bit more confident with what we have. The scenes we have will most likely be enough to reach the 2-minute mark, the only thing is we need to figure out what we are going to include within these scenes. 

Revised Scenes + Meetings

Hi blog! My group and I are meeting up for the first time this week on Wednesday outside of school. Some things that I would like to get done this Wednesday are:
- Begin screenplay
- Finish scenes
Once we finish all of these things, then comes the most important component: filming! We can't get to filming without either of these things, so I'm hoping to get both of these done this Wednesday. One thing that me and Paola got done during class is that we planned out the first scene of our film, and we also decided how we are going to introduce the title of our film. We have decided to introduce our title towards the end of the opening when the conflict is introduced. I don't want to say anything more because we still have some revisions to make, and I also don't want to spoil it for you guys. I can't wait to show you all what we produce. Happy blogging!