Location Scouting

 Location Scouting

For our story, the city of Weston works perfectly for locations, so I'll be going over the locations in the city that will be used.

Scene 1 Location: House

For the bedroom and house location we'll be using Noah's house which is the biggest house we could get without overexaggerating the rich characteristic of Oliver. This is where the first scene will be filmed where Oliver is getting ready and tries to light a cigarette but fails.

Scene 2 Location: In car

For the car scene where Oliver and his mom are talking, we'll be using the closest thing to a mom van so we'll be using a Jeep Grand Wagoneer for the clip. We'll record the scene while the car is stopped and make the background moving or appear as its driving through editing. 

Scene 3 Location: Library Park

For the final scene, the Library Park next to Cypress works perfectly. The walk to the library is really close to the school and the school will be able to be framed in the shot to show clearer that he's not going to school and goes to the bathroom. The good thing about it is that I'll be able to get all that in one shot.

Scene 4 Location: Inside Bathroom

For the bathroom location, we'll be using the pool bathrooms in Villas of Bonaventure. The reason I chose this bathroom is because it is a bathroom in my friend's neighborhood that isn't well preserved so it is the closest thing to a dirty bathroom.

Audio

                                                                                  Audio    

To keep the 2 faced vibe for the opening, there will be 2 types of audio like the mise-en-scene, internal and external.

External Sound

For the external sound, it will match the fake side of Oliver. For the start of the opening where Oliver turns of the alarm a annoying alarm will be beeping until he turns it off. When he does, fancy music will be playing while he gets ready to show that this side of Oliver is all 'goody goody' and would stop as slowly or slowly fade as he opens his drawer with the folded clothes giving a sense of transition to show his other side. Also a sound effect that will play if the lighter trying to light the cigarette.

Sounds: Clock Alarm, Drawer, Lighter Flickering

Background Sounds: Fancy Music, footsteps in house

Internal Sound

For the internal sound, Oliver will be wearing some headphones in the car listening to music and the music will be playing faintly in the background while he has his conversation with his mom. When he says bye to his mom and he gets out the car the music volume ramps up as he puts his headphones on. The music keeps on playing but fades away in sync with him going to the bathroom and leaving the picture. In the bathroom, suspense music will start playing to show that something wrong is happening and to paint the picture that what he's doing is bad. In the background environment birds will be chirping as he's going to the bathroom.

Sounds: Suspensive Music, car door,

Background Sounds: Headphone Music, Inside car driving, Suspensive Music

Character Development

                                                                       Character Development

For my story Oliver (the protagonist) is basically a 2 faced person where around certain people he'll act like a good kid that gets good grades, while his other side he'll be a bad kid that does illegal stuff

"Good Boy" Side

For his good side, Oliver is a good, intelligent kid that gets good grades to his family, teachers, etc. This side is his fake side where he will only put this good act around people

"Thug" Side

                                                                                                        For Oliver's other side, he is a kid that                                                                                                            does illegal activities such as, smoke,                                                                                                                steal, and bullies kids. He hangs around                                                                                                            the wrong crowd and the type of media                                                                                                            he watches that influences him to do                                                                                                                many of the things he is doing.

Production Logo

 Production Company Logo

This post will not be long since I'll just be going over the production logo. For the production logo my partner, Noah, made it in Canva, a free graphic design website, where he also found the picture of the cracked mirror in the background of the text. He told me that the name really had no meaning but if it could have one it could mean the broken reflection of reality since the production would primarily work social realism films. The double 'k' in Crakked doesn't mean anything Noah just did it to be a little different. He said that he found all the fonts and pictures on Canva as well.

Production Plan

                                                                              Production Plan

               Scene 1

    

    To start the film opening, we'll open with a long shot of Oliver(the protagonist) with him in his bed. We'll shoot this shot in a master bedroom since it's the biggest room in a house and we want to show that Oliver's room is a big room to show that he is rich or at least somewhat wealthy. When he is in bed we see him wake up and look at his alarm and turns it off. He gets ready for school by putting on a white collared button up and dress pants for school. He then goes into a hidden drawer and takes out folded clothes and puts it in his bag. The clothes appear bulky instead of flat folded clothes and he has digs everything out his bag so he could put it in deepest he can. He then opens a hidden drawer and takes out a pencil case. Inside the pencil case there's cigarettes and a lighter he opens his window and takes one out trying to light it. At the same time he's trying to light it his mom calls him from downstairs saying that he'll be late for school. He gives up trying to light the cigarette and throws it out the window.

Scene 2

For the second scene we were going to have a short scene of Oliver and his mom talking and driving on their way to school. On the drive their connecting, and then his mom asks him "Why do you always walk from the park to school? I just don't understand why I can't just drop you off at the school." Oliver then comes up with an excuse and says "It helps me get ready for the day with a morning walk. Its healthy, I saw someone talking about it online." Oliver's mom then interrupts him "Social Media isn't always reliable and people make stuff up all the time on there." And then Oliver says "But Ma, it's really helping me and I always feel better going to school that way." Oliver's mom then says "Fine. At least it's less driving for me and more time to watch my shows." They get to the park near the school and Oliver's mom asks Oliver again, "Are you sure you don't want me to take you to school?" and Oliver replies with "Yes mom, I'm sure" and then they both dismiss each other and they both leave. Oliver then pretends to walk on his way to school until he sees his mom leave. 

Scene 3

When Oliver gets dropped off he pretends to go to school. When he sees his mom leave he switches his way from school to a bathroom on the way to school. When he gets to the bathroom he goes to a stall and takes the folded clothes out of his bag. The clothes are flashy street clothes that is the complete opposite of proper dress clothes and he unfolds the clothes. When he unfolds them, a bag of weed is seen, which was what made the clothes so bulky, and he puts it on the sink. When he puts it on the sink a close up shot of the bag is shown with the camera slowly zooming out. While this is happening, Oliver is changing into the clothes that he had in his bag. On the bag of weed there's a writing that says "Straight A's" which is the title card and then the film opening ends in a black screen when Oliver throws the button up on the sink covering the camera turning it black.

This still isn't the full script since we might have some challenges while recording some of the scenes, so there might be some changes from what you see on here.

Internal Representation Mise-en-scene

                                                                     Internal Representation

                                For the internal representation of mise-en-scene I will be going over the 

                               lighting, costume, props, and setting used for the internal persona of my character.

Lighting

As I said on my last post I will be using "Atlanta style" lighting in the opening film to demonstrate a sense of realism in the open world for both sides. It's not much to say about the element of lighting since I just want the realism to be a sensed in the project.

Costume

For the costume of his internal (bad) side will be something like this because this style is heavily used in "ghetto" environments now compared to in the past where it was all baggy. This style is also kind of mainstream for people in these areas and heavily televised on social media so it shows the type of influence I talked about in my target audience.

Props

For the props we were going to get a ziploc bag and fill it with fake weed which will be oregano glued together to form a ball or just leave it crushed and put it in the bag alone for the bathroom scene. For the room scene we're probably going to use paper to roll into a cylinder and then coloring it orange on the tip for it to look like one. If it looks to fake we'll order some fake ones and then switch the scene up a bit by making Oliver(the protagonist) try to smoke it but cant in time so he just throws it away.

Location

For the location of his bad side, the bathroom where he's in to change will be a dirty one because it shows that he's changing from the clean life with his clean clothes to the dirty side of him where he does all the illegal activities and acts the way he is and its the location is also the opposite of cleanliness of his room just like he's turning into the opposite version of what people think about him.

Mise-en-scene External Representation

            Mis-en-Scene External Representation

Lighting

          

For the external mise-en-scene, I will be taking inspiration from the show "Atlanta." The show does a really good job on different lighting for different scenarios and makes you feel immersed into the Atlanta world or give the vibe relating to what is going on in the show. It also gives a sense of reality in most scenes where colors are less saturated where in difference, most other films or series colors are  brighter or over-dramatized like the events that happen in the show. I really hope to achieve a similar result in my project by using the light to open the viewer's emotional response for them to have some type of connection to the film opening. 

                                                       Costumes

One of the leading representations of difference between the characters persona is going to be the costumes. I will over dramatize the outfits a bit like in Etan Kohen's "Get Hard" starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart to give a taste of humor in the the project. In my project I will have the kid have a white button up shirt with dress pants and everyday casual sneakers. When he changes costumes he will be in tight jeans that are sagging or baggy clothes. The tight clothes would match with todays society so we might use those over the baggy clothes.

     Props

For the props we were gonna use items that privileged kids would have in their room, we were gonna use items like trophies, expensive gaming pc, and honor roll certificate(etc.) to show his good side. For the trophies or medals I was going to have them stacked up as a collection. I was going to put the honor roll certificate as a little object in the background of his room and for the gaming pc it's going to be shown directly to show that he is privileged.

Location

For our filming locations we have to give a sense of realism in the suburbs. We were going to use a room in a big house in a gated neighborhood. We were also gonna have a short section from the kid on the way to school in the car with his mom to show what he does to hide everything he does. We were going to use a park near the school so show the extent he goes to be someone he is not.

 a

Storyboard

Today I will be talking about about my storyboard. The story board isn't fully completed because Noah and I are still discussing what will happen after the title card. But let me get into what I have completed so far. Our story begins with a black screen and then a flame flickering then the flame stays on. We then see a stick go into the flame and we find out its a cigarette after seeing some smoke. The shot then cuts to a long shot of a window and a kid smoking. The kid is our protagonist, Oliver, who is a suburban kid. His mom then calls him downstairs and he puts it out and throws it out the window. He puts his clothes on fast being a white button up and some dress pants for school. He also grabs a spare change of clothes and puts them in his backpack. The shot then goes to a two-shot of Oliver and his mom in the car and he asks to get dropped off at the library. When his mom drops him off he walks on the way to school but takes a detour and goes to the bathroom. In the bathroom he takes out his spare change of clothes that are folded and unfolds them. When he does a big ziploc bag filled with a green substance is revealed. He puts it on the sink and it has some writing on it later revealed in an extreme close-up shot to say "Straight A's."

Target Audience

 When Noah and I were coming up with our idea for our film, we asked ourselves "What audience do we want to attract?" and ultimately we decided that our target was teens, specifically suburban teens. Our idea to target privileged kids came from the environment that we live in where kids who live in safe gated neighborhoods want to act like they come from the streets or like they grew up in a bad area. These kids' motives are usually to do these acts for validation from their friends because it makes them seem like they are tough and it gives them credibility. When kids like this want to put on this act they start changing the way they dress, talk, or even act which can sometimes lead into situations that can later lead into consequences. These kids get all their mannerisms from influence like movies, social media, and music. What these kids don't get is that all their influence comes from pieces of entertainment that is purposed to attract awareness to this lifestyle not to attract negative attention. When these kids interact with these pieces of media, they feel like they are missing out on something that is bigger than them when in reality it's the other way around. This promotes the idea of kids feeling insecure of how they act to preserve an image of themselves that doesn't link with their reality which ends up hurting them more than it helps.

Major Inspiration

 Major Inspiration

My major inspiration for this opening will be based around 'Atlanta' created by Donald Glover(Childish Gambino). The inspiration that I will be taking from this show is the film style and a similar type opening where it uses its environment to make it's title card. I was thinking of having somewhat 2 title cards where one of them is hidden in the background and one of them are front and center both being opposites to show the contrast between the sides of my character.

For the first 'title card' I was going to have a "Straight A's" certificate hung up in the room while my protagonist wakes up and its not very noticeable since this side of the protagonist will not be shown or focused on as much. For example, in the picture above, Adult Swim likes to hide their logo "[AS]" in few shots. In the picture of the garden you can sort of make out an AS on the bottom right. I want to do something similar for the scene but not so subtle.

For the second title card I was going to have one like in this shot where its almost front and centered but it will be more focused on since this is the side the viewer will be paying attention to more. For the scene I was gonna have my protagonist in a completely opposite setting of the first 'title card' and make it related to something that is opposite of a scholar or a straight A student.

Current Idea

 Straight A's

The title of the film opening will be the title above. The opening will take place in the suburbs preferably Weston. The protagonist will be in high school so he'll be roughly around 14-18 years old. The protagonist will come from wealth and have a stable home. To his parents, he is a good kid that gets good grades, is high achieving, nice, etc. In reality, this kid is doing the complete opposite, like has bad grades, does unhealthy activities, hangs around the wrong crowd etc. He is basically 2 faced and has to balance them out.

The title comes from the main character pretending to be a good kid and how everyone around him or his loved ones around him thinks he's a good kid, so basically the title comes from how everyone views him just like the first impression on the viewer when the film opening starts.

Movie Openings Research

The movie Scarface, a gangster thriller, directed by Brian De Palma, is a classic in the movie space. The movie taking place in Miami in the 1980's, opens up with a black screen with text saying "In May of 1980, Fidel Castro in an effort to normalize relations with the Carter Administration opened the harbor at Mariel, Cuba with the apparent intention of letting some of his people join their relatives in the United States. Within seventy-two hours, 3,000 U.S. boats were headed for Cuba. In the next few weeks, it became evident that Castro was forcing the boat owners to carry back with them not only their relatives but the dregs of his jail population. By the time the port was closed 125,000 'Marielitos' had landed in Florida. An estimated 25,000 had criminal records. This is the story of that minority those they call 'Los Bandidos'." and then, red credits going across the screen, and also very short clips of people on boats and deboarding ships. With each individual cut of black screen, a speech can be heard with men yelling in support in the background. The movie starts with Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee that came off one of the boats, being interrogated by immigration officers. They ask him all sorts of questions like, if he speaks English, if he's been to prison, questions of that kind. Tony says no to going to prison but the immigration officers find a tattoo of a machete on a heart on his wrist that belonged to a group of people he had been to prison with. When the immigration officers find the tattoo they say they've seen that same tattoo on multiple people and send him to 'Freedom Town,' a refugee camp that held Cubans with no green cards. He met up with one of his friends he came on the boat with, Manolo, and he had an opportunity to get a green card if he did a contract kill. Tony agrees and waits for the right time.

 

Boyz N The Hood was one of the first movies of it's kind, depicting the reality of the harsh conditions that families in low income housing and section 8 housing live in. The movie, taking place in South Central, LA, begins with a group of kids, Tre Styles the protagonist, Doughboy one of Tre's neighbors and Ricky, Doughboy's brother, walking to their elementary school. One of the kids ask the others about a shooting they heard nearby the night before. The kids talk about it and then keep going on their way to school. The scene cuts to the classroom where Tre and his classmates are paying attention to the teacher but bored. Tre interrupts the teacher and she asks him to teach the class and he goes up. He starts telling his class how every African-American originated in Africa and how it basically means that everyone comes from there. A kid in the class interrupts Tre and he calls Tre an "African booty scratcher" and they start insulting each other back and forth and Tre says that he'll get his dad on the kid and then makes fun of him for not having one and the kid calls Tre an insult which causes them to start fighting in the class. The scene then cuts to Tre's mom on the phone and Tre getting home. The viewer then finds out that Tre was on his last strike before having to move with his dad into a worse neighborhood. His mom takes him to his dad's, Furious Styles and he talks to Tre's mom. They talk about how Tre is becoming a man and how his mom can't teach him to be a man only his Dad can.

Snowfall is a "narco" rags-to-riches story that follows the life a young adult, Franklin Saint, that lives in South Central, LA with his mother. It tells the story of the crack epidemic in South Central, how it came to be, and gives an insight on how the CIA was pumping cocaine onto the streets of LA to fund a secret war. The show opens up with kids playing basketball for a short time and then an ice cream truck comes rolling around the street. The kids run to the ice cream truck where we get a view of the ice cream bar where 2 kids sneak up on the ice cream truck and steal candy from the open window of the truck. The ice cream man chases the kids and they try to run away then Franklin stops both of them by grabbing them by the arm and he scolds the kids and gets the ice cream man his candy back. Franklin then walks away from the ice cream man and goes to talk to his friends, Leon and Kevin. Franklin talks with them and Leon asks him to spot him for a cone and both Franklin and Kevin tell him to spot his mom a cone. They start messing around on the street as the shot zooms out of the trio and it pans to show the streets of South Central with a text saying "South Central Los Angeles June 14, 1983" and then cuts to a title card of the show.