I edited today. I started with a rough edit of just getting all of the pieces together and when I got home I continued and started to fix some more fine details. It still isn't done, I wanna re-film the part when I am kicking Emily because that is confusing and some other stuff. But that shouldn't take too long, and I could get it done in less than a period. I picked out a song to use. It was written by Alexandre Desplat. He writes music for a lot of major motion pictures, he recently wrote the soundtrack for Argo and he did the soundtrack for The Tree of Life, and the song I choose of his was from Moonrise Kingdom. On of my favourite things about that movie was the music. It fit the movie so perfectly and I started to listen to that soundtrack without the movie behind it. His stuff kind of fit the movie but at the same time didn't. I have more to fix and that's what I'll be doing tomorrow. Here is what I got so far.

My Movie and Adventure

This blog post is a combination of two posts that I've been meaning to write.

Part 1- My Movie

I've been trying to work on a movie for the past few weeks. I've spent many hours on my computer watching Wes Anderson films, and basically I'm  just trying to copy everything he does in his films in mine. I love his movies, and I wanna make something that I can love to watch. I have a script but I need to shorten it because there is a lot of useless stuff that doesn't add anything to the movie. I need to figure out where it is I'm going to film this. Whenever I write a script I'm always trying to think about how realistic it could be to make it real. In my mind I'm constantly thinking about where it is I'm going to film, who is going to play the roles and other things like that. I realize that trying to fake a space into becoming something that it's not is hard especially when I have a limited amount of time to arrange the room, like in the case of filming in a classroom. I need to try and rewrite certain parts so that they can be filmed in the locations that actually exist and that I am allowed to film in. I don't want to make a big deal about finding some special place to try when I could just as easily make the sense work in another location. I have a scene where the main character, Mrs. Cathy, goes into the police station to report the missing girl. I realize that I could probably make this whole scene a phone conversation rather than an in person talk because turning an area into a police station would look awful and also I would also have to worry about the camera spilling seeing the other environment I am trying to hide. I came across this issue in my last movie. It was super annoying because I could only film from a few angles, and I had to put up a blanket to try and cover an area that wasn't supposed to be seen. I don't want to have to deal with that issue again, so I'm going to rewrite the scenes for the areas I know I can film in. That way I won't have to be running around trying to make a fake police station inside of a classroom. 

Part 2- Weekend Adventure

So two weeks ago I went into the city with my aunt and I slept over at her apartment. I wanted to write about this when I got back to her place but I feel asleep because it was around one when I got back I was too exhausted to log onto my computer. My parents had wanted to go to Massachusetts to see my dad's best friend's mid life crisis band play at some bar. They invited me to come but I would have rather stayed with my aunt than watch fifty year old men play covers of songs I have never heard of while everyone got so drunk that the dancing consisted of everyone trying to keep their balance by leaning on one another (I received footage, I'm not joking). My parents dropped me off at my aunt's apartment at around ten thirty. My aunt's boyfriend was there, he works for the U.N. and is normally away traveling between New York and Holland, and he made us breakfast. As we ate I started to play my French music I had on my computer, most of it consisted of old Edith Piaf songs. Daniel, my aunt's boyfriend, made some comments about it, he is a cultured European, and we had a mini conversation about my enrollment in French for next year. I then began to discuss how that day I wanted to get a haircut. My aunt and her boyfriend are extremely liberal people. Some might have considered my aunt a communist back in the old days. And Daniel works for the U.N., so he has to be pretty liberal. Because of their openness I decided that if I ever wanted to dye my hair then I would probably have to have to do it that day. I told them my plan to dye my hair and they seemed fine with it. I got my aunt to call the store and make an appointment because I was too nervous to call for myself and I would probably just call the whole thing off I was given in charge of making the appointment.  I go to Chinatown to get my haircut, my hair styler’s name is Jo, she is this sixty-year-old Chinese lady, and she doesn't speak English and I like that about her. I tell her "short" or "red" and she is like "yes yes yes" and I always get out with an awesome haircut, so I don't complain. I arrived at the hair salon and I said hi to Jo. She lead me to this hair where she took out a book and I pointed at the shade of colour I wanted. Then this other person came out with the hair dye. I was a little uncomfortable with the fact that someone other than Jo was touching my hair, but for the first half an hour I though this person was a boy and I could only focus on how adorable I thought she was. Her hair was short and styled all spiky and short, and she was wearing a button up shirt and was extremely flat chested. She was also fairly young, I would she was in her early twenties, and she probably got a job there through some family connection, maybe her aunt was Jo, and she was working there doing basic stuff while she studied at school. I watched as she rubbed her hands into my hair through the mirror for the first half an hour, it was all vaguely sexual to me. Then she yelled something out to someone in Chinese. I realized that she had a very high voice for a boy, and for the rest of the dying process I was trying to figure out the gender of this person. I think I must have been staring at her chest for a good fives minutes looking to see if there where any breasts. I finally came to the conscious that she was in fact a female and not a gay boy, when I saw her shoes. She was wearing a pair of white sketchers sneakers, and I know that any gay boy wearing the same outfit, with the same hair, wouldn't screw up his whole outfit with a pair of crappy shoes. My hair absorbed all the colour and then the boy/girl took me to the sink where she washed my hair. If I still though that she was a boy this process would have been extremely arousing but sadly I could no longer live in the illusion. I was then taken back to Jo who sat me down at her station. She complemented my new red hair, which I still couldn't get a good look at because my glasses had to be removed. She asked me in her broken English what type of hair cut I wanted. To be honest I hadn't planned past the hair dying. I was so preoccupied over my hair-changing colour that I forgot it was getting cut. So I told her to just do whatever. She liked to hear that. I finished at the hair salon and I left with my aunt. She kept complementing me on my hair but I didn't like it because I couldn't get a good picture with it and I was worried that it made me look ugly. I put on my Adventure Time hat that I made recently made on, and I covered my new hair except for a little bit that seeped through the front of hat. The plan from there was to go to Barnes & Nobles and get that David Mamet book on directing. We got to a store and they didn't have it in stock and my aunt and I asked one of the workers if he could check if it was in another store nearby. He did and he was a sweet old guy. He asked if I was making a movie and I said yes. I then started to explain the whole plot of it. This is the same movie that I was talking about in part one. I could tell he really wasn't interested, and I didn't think any less of him for that. He tries to do his job with a smile but I could also tell that he wasn't a people person. I butchered my movie plot in my explanation because I wanted to just stop talking but I had already started. This was before I had made an ending to it, so if the guy was actually listening then he thinks that the little girl who runs away ends up dying. He found another store that had the book and it was only a few blocks away so my aunt and me went and got it. We then meet up Daniel, who had to go to work that day, and we ate dinner. We had Thai food. I love Thai food. Asian food is much more kind towards vegetarians and like having a lot of options to choose from. We ate and then Daniel returned to work and my aunt (I think I'll give her name now because I'm tired of writing "my aunt", Tia Chave) went back to the apartment. Our plan was to take a nap but instead I showed her Fantastic Mr. Fox on movie2k because she hadn't seen it and I thought that she should. We finished the movie and then headed out again. I wanted to see the Neo Futurists again so we went to see Too Much Light. Daniel meets us at the theater, he is Dutch, and the Dutch enjoy bicycles, so he had ridden his bike there. It was a little awkward but that's probably because I'm not used to seeing a man in a shirt and tie, with a briefcase and shoes, riding a bike. We got in and I was a little disappointed when I saw that a certain actor was in the show that night. We saw him on the first STAC trip this year. He was the gay Latino guy who was cross-dressing. He got up on a chair and made the announcement that we could start to roll the dice to get seats, but he managed to add in something about how beautiful and sexy he was and that made me uncomfortable because he was being conceded and he doesn't deserve to be because he isn't that attractive. The other gay boy in the play is beyond hot and he never mentions his beauty and that makes him even more attractive. I will say that the ugly gay boy is a great writer, and he had a lot of cool ideas. There was this play where he was talking through a teddy bear with a microphone about how we don't realize how our we are served by Latinos who are just trying to work and yet we are trying to throw them out and criticize them as bad criminals. I liked the show but this was my third time going and at this point I started to feel that the show was getting cliché. It's always changing but the whole thing feels the same after each you go. I think that it was still a great experience because when you see that many shows you are able to get a ton of new idea to steal for yourself, but I should probably see a different show the next time I'm in the city. I wasn't paying attention to show during the last twenty minutes because I realized there was this adorable gay couple sitting two rows in front of me. They were holding hand and they where having the time of their lives that night. There was a play about how the new pope would be all liberal and then they started throwing condoms into the audience, and jokingly one boy in the couple went out of his way to catch one and the other boy laughed so hard and kissed him when he got back into his chair. At that moment I wanted to cry, and just thinking about it now makes me tear again because it was beautiful to me. The only reason I didn't come out so many years ago was because I was afraid I couldn't have a normal life if I did. And seeing this couple, cuddling and kissing in public, made me so happy. I wanted to hug the two as they left the theater together but I realized that I would look like a freak if I did. That was my adventure. I wasn't as artistic as I would have wanted it to be, and I could have talked more about the show but I got more out of seeing that couple than I did from the show, so I thought it would just be better if I wrote about that. I didn't have to write about my hair dying but that too has a connection to my sexuality issue. I keep asking myself now why it is that I did it. I can't really give a good answer but the real reason is that I want what that couple at Too Much Light had, and I thought that by dying it I would be more noticeable to other gay boys. We don't wear signs around out necks saying, "I'm gay" because it would be so much easier if we did, but we don't. I want a boy to be able to look at me and start flirting with me, and not be afraid I'll yell out faggot and punch him in the face, because I have purposely not flirted with guys because of that fear. 

My First Movie

Alrighty, so I just finished editing my movie and I think I am finally mentally ready to upload it. After seeing Ellen's movie I really feel like it would be hard for mine to live up to that. But I filmed a movie that I would actually want to watch. My characters hardly moved and even though you couldn't actually hear any of their voices in the film I tried to make conversation.
So I started writing this on Monday. I was the only one in the group with a computer that first day so I kind of got a mini advantage. I started to come up with a basic concept for what the movie would be about. The project we were given came with a template, "You are to tell the story of a couple, from first meeting to break-up, in a series of shots overlaid with music", so there wasn't make planning in that sense other than to just fill in the blanks. You can see if you watch my movie all the blanks that were filled in. I started to look up the types of shots that we were required to use. I knew most of them, and a lot of them were self explanatory. I found a page in the Shot to Shot book that explained a lot with a picture that was given.

I had already written out a script before I started to figure out the shots I would film. I had a general idea for some of the more interesting shots, like when Ingrid looks up from the Bible and sees Regina and other more complex shots. It was the next day, Tuesday, that I started to draw, and write out more in more detail what it was I had to film. I wrote it out in Celtx but I also started to draw it. The stuff that I drew really didn't help me at all, I use it for one scene, but by the middle of filming it I just stopped using it. 

I realized that I couldn't think out every shot like I had planned to do because the space that I would be in was limited. I realized that once I started filming inside I couldn't just put the camera wherever I wanted to and that if I filmed from certain angles then you would see something that you weren't supposed to. 

This is the Celtx of what I wrote. 

____________________________________

EXT. Park

Far Shot: Ingrid Swinging

INGRID, a 14 year girl, is swinging on the swings alone while she reads the bible.

CLOSE UP: Ingrid's face.

Ingrid looks up from her book.

POV: Looking at Regina

Ingrid puts down her book and her eyes meet REGINA'S, a 16 year old girl, eyes. Regina is smiling.

CLOSE UP: Ingrid's face

Ingrid smiles back.

INT. Restaurant

Far Shot: Restaurant Table

Regina is sitting at the restaurant table.

EXTREME CLOSE UP: Regina's Face from her mirror

She takes out her mirror and fixes her hair.

MEDIUM: Regina at the TABLE

She takes her phone out of her pocket and checks it.

Full Shot: Restaurant Table

Ingrid enters. A hostess directs her to her table. She looks around, nervous. Regina looks up from her phone.

OVER THE SHOULDER: Regina Looking towards Ingrid

The hostess leads Ingrid to the table. She sits down. Ingrid continues to look around nervous.

MEDIUM: Regina and Ingrid

Regina takes Ingrid's hand and Ingrid stops focusing on everyone else.

EXT. PARK

TWO-SHOT: Ingrid and Regina on Jungle Gym

The two girls and laying down on the jungle gym. Regina talks. Ingrid is holding onto her bible. Regina puts her head on Ingrid's shoulder.

POV: Regina To Ingrid

Regina looks at Ingrid. Ingrid clutches her bible a little more.

INT. Basement

OVER THE SHOULDER: Ingrid and Regina Watching TV

Ingrid and Regina sit a good distance from each other. A TV show is playing.

MEDIUM: Ingrid and Regina

They are holding hands but other than that they are not being romantic. Ingrid seems focused on the show. Regina looks back at Ingrid's face.

Full Shot: Ingrid and Regina

Regina moves closer to Ingrid and puts her arm around her. Ingrid smiles and gets comfortable under Regina's arm. Regina kisses her on the check and then Ingrid turns and smiles, then proceeding to cuddle with Regina. Ingrid puts down the bible she has been holding.

PAN: To bible

EXT. PARK

Tracking: Regina walks toward the swing

Ingrid is swinging on the swing where they meet. She is again reading her bible.

CLOSE UP: Ingrid Looks up from bible

Ingrid looks up from her book.

POV: Ingrid to Regina

Ingrid looks at Regina who has a smile that fades as she begins to look down.

Far Shot: Ingrid and Regina

Ingrid touches Regina's hand, and hands her the bible.

Full: Regina and Ingrid

Regina takes the bible and looks down at it as Ingrid begins to try to explain to her something. Ingrid repeatedly points toward the sky.

CLOSE UP: Ingrid

She says very clearly so we can see it without hearing her say it "It's not right".

TWO-SHOT: Regina and Ingrid

Regina smacks Ingrid and Ingrid drops the Bible and runs away.

________________________________________________________

When I was filming the break up scene I had very limited options on where I could put the camera. I put a sheet over the wall to try and cover the couch, where the two of the had been before, because that would have looked very weird. That last scene originally wasn't part of the break up, it was part of the two falling in love. The break up was supposed to happen at the park, next to the swings where they first meet, but it was far too cold for us to stay outside that day and my fingers started to feel numb so I decided to just forget about that last scene and try to figure something out when I had gotten home. I started filming the dinner scene and then I realized that that scene could be the break up scene because originally that was the first date that the two went on and she was supposed to be nervous, and once we started filming I saw that I could turn that nervousness into a nervousness into a nervousness about having to break up rather than the fact that it was their first date. It worked out pretty well too, better than I thought it would because I had been improvising the last part. 

So in editing I was teaching myself as I was going. I am still relatively new to the Mac ownership world, so I didn't know how to use IMovie but I was able to figure it out with the help of google and YouTube. I originally had picked out a song called Pour Que L'amour Me Quitte by Camille, but that was too short so I changed it to Ingrid Michaelson's version of Elvis's "Can't Help Falling In Love" . I had made a list of songs that I could use while I was writing and working on this movie. I wanted a song that wasn't too happy because my movie was generally depressing. I had a list of 23 songs that I could see work with this movie but I settled for this one because it was the correct amount of time that I needed for my movie, if you notice the song ends exactly when the movie ends, which is why I have not credits, and because the song is about love. Ingrid wants to love Regina but can't because she feels that it's wrong, and the song is about not being able to resist the falling in love.

So here it is...