Music Choices

Music adds to the emotional quality of the film. Loud music arouses, slow and soft music calms. Motion and emotion are often entwined. Obviously my short is not an action-packed film with chase scenes and the like, so "loud" is off the table. Alternatively I've found a few song options that fall under the "slow and soft" category to act as emotional cues and "silence fillers."

1. Teddy- Anxious 
2. Kevin MacLeod- B- Somber Ballads
3. Chris Zabriskie- I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor 

Option 1 has lyrics and originally drew me because of its slow melody, somber notes, and unique voice, however, the most effective soundtracks are those which operate just below the consciousness of the moviegoer and overall I think it may be too distracting for my onscreen image. Option 2 is solely instrumental but it is less introspective and "sadder" than anything else. After all many in the film industry, including the composers, feel that music offers a kind of sub-text; it serves as thought bubbles on screen-- I not looking for that level of emotion. Option 3 offers a perfect balance between "filler," "introspection," and depression, listening to it actually gave me a few ideas for the film (key: introspection)-- I may have to recruit my actor one last time if he doesn't decide to kill me first. Anyway, the track is 11 minutes long which gives a lot of raw audio to work with-- even better? It's royalty free.

In general this music is going to be a guiding factor. While my mise-en-scene is carefully chosen and directed my piece is based in emotion. This is especially complicated due to actor availability. I can't call up Jake Gyllenhaal to act in my short film. Don't get me wrong... my main actor was surprisingly a good option but amateur teenage acting can only go so far in evoking an emotional response for the audience.  Interestingly, I was watching a video that showed music as reminiscent of the Kuleshov effect where the editor placed different soundtracks over a scene (Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean) and close up of a actors face and with each new soundtrack the emotions we associate with the actor changed despite the footage being exactly the same. Music will need to underscore emotion (depression, anxiety) for my film which I think music Option 3 does well.

Furthermore, without a film crew and teams of editors it is more difficult for the visual product to shine. In our culture, the eye is thought to be more superior than the ear but music, used skillfully, can cover up otherwise weak directing and/or cinematography. We typically underestimate the power of music because we over-trust our eyes, by adding the subconscious (or at least underestimated) music cue into my short, hopefully I can add an extra layer of emotion and dynamics to my piece.


Sources:
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/10/5-ways-you-can-use-film-scores-make-your-films-more-dynamic

https://youtu.be/bCpYbSz1KqE
http://www.e-filmmusic.de/article1.htm

Production and Beginning Post Production

Link to Video Blog

Sources:
Alfred Hitchcock: Six Fundamentals of Good Suspense
The Kuleshov Effect

Filming Part 2

After filming for 6 hours on Saturday, I am not looking forward to filming these final scenes, however, looking back has helped the to understand that I need a few more "time passing shots." I'm going to go through a few more shot choices and talk about what's left to do.

So this is kind of our transition scene-- we had to switch locations
because the original house sint have a bathtub but we fond a nice
option close by. This is was somewhere between a medium shot and a close-up
but the main idea was to see the tears and emotion within the actor.

This angle was off-kilter to mirror the main characters skewed mental
state in this moment

This was so increadibly hard to film because the main actor could not,
for the life of him (haha, get it?) hold his breath underwater. It's
going to need some editing magic.

AD

Sorry this is vertical, but this shot is going to provice a graphic
match with the previous 

This is going to be "waking up" per se, and it also provides a parallel with the
first shot on this post. 

So I'm going to figure out a day this week I can get my therapist, a therapist assistant (for which I will most likely enlist my close friend), a lab coat, and my main actor all in one place with a solid script. Furthermore, I have to find out a sneaky way to use editing software, whether it be at my school or downloading Adobe Premier at home (totally legally of course!). Time to finish production and start post!

Music Considerations

Music can take a film and make it more than the sum of its parts. This is important. there are twoTmain considerations here: "suspense" music for climactic moments and "time passing" music to help engage viewers while the main character is essentially walking around being bored and drunk. A psychological thriller short film I had the pleasure to watch a few months back called Drink had an original score so I went back and gave it a listen and I really like the soundtracks (the short film can be found here). I'm making a concerted effort not to include any mainstream music or anything with lyrics. Including music here is all about conveying emotion so the emotional beats of mainstream music are not going to match the emotional beats of my main character I could always retime my images to match the music but that would be a music video.

During the "tech disappearing scene" I need to find a suspenseful song or loop that can mirror "oops something is wrong here" the best example I found of this was in Jaws in the opening scene. When "Chrissie" and her male companion are running toward the beach, there isn't a soundtrack playing. All is well-or so we think. It isn't until we see a fish eye view of Chrissie swimming and we begin to hear some eerie music, which causes us to feel a little uneasy. Now we know something is wrong. We don't see anything that looks dangerous, but the music tells you that, yep, this girl is in trouble. I'm looking for this type fo cue for the tech scene and I think music is going to be overly important here. Despite the scene being well-acted, the emotional music cue is key.

For time passing I want to go with a more classic or "silence filler" vibe. No matter how bad the Twilight movies may be, I really like this "time passing" example from Twilight: New Moon. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4gEFZ0TJ8o
I really enjoy it because it not only helps to convey
Bella's emotions but to avoid making the audience bored or uncomfortable with the scene being presented.

I'll update with more specific music and editing choices soon :)


http://www.filmunderground.com/358/Article/NWFS/Music-and-the-Short-Film.htm

Filming

Hi! Today was day 1 of filming. I have a bulk of the footage, I just need the "therapist" scene at this point as well as some extra "time passing" shots. I'll attach some screen grabs and describe some of lighting, angle, and composition decisions.

Alright, this wasn't part of filming at all, but I like to think he was praying
for me to leave him alone.

This is a very common shot as the tech is disappearing. In the full shot the
vectors are very symmetrical, the lighting is dark which helps add to the
ominous feel which I achieved by working with a shift over the back window.

This shot is also common, however, it is a good option as it
shows each piece of technology well and includes the message on the screen
which reads, in english "another innocent dead" which does not
phase the main character in the slightest. 

Here I used an extreme close up to underscore the "engrossment" and
infatuation of the main character with technology

The framing here was also mostly for vectors, also I love having the actor
simply "walk into" the shot. 

This framing is the beginning of a tracking shot and again we have the same
clinical white, black shirt, and unphased demeanor. 

Here we have the same framing as earlier and some carefully placed
bottles to imply that they are empty and to imply that he is so bored
that to feel anything he has to drink.

Here we have a slight change of scene which is used to signal the passing of
time and you know, drunks sleep anywhere.

I'll post more in a bit but this cover the majority of the introduction of the plot :)

Rough Sketch of Movie Postcard

Okay, so I still have a few bumps to figure out but this is the basic design for my short film postcard. For now, I think the tagline is a pretty applicable quote, I'm going to check if we are allowed to do this. The title works well, I think as the main character is not only deeply immersed in technology, but in the bathtub, and in the VR simulated world. I like this design bu I think the back can do with a few improvements as well.

Front 

Back

Storyboard

Backstory

Main actor and I a few years ago!

The main character's name is Pedro. Well, his name in real life is Pedro, and for the sake of this blog post we'll call the fictional main character Pedro even though the viewer will never actually his name. Pedro is in his final year of high school, he has a close-knit group of friends. He grew up with the Pokemon games as well as Minecraft and all of the other "joys" of the internet. Pedro, like much of the world has slowly become more and more involved with technology and the sole form of communication has become the internet and technology. People have become clinically addicted. Now Pedro needs to undergo therapy for his addiction.

Plot 

Therapist

Pedro is sitting on his couch in his living room. He is wearing neutral colored non-branded clothing in order to help the audience sympathize with the character. He is checking his phone and his email on his laptop while watching TV and with an apple watch. His mother walks in and you can hear her talking at him and trying to get his attention but he's obviously entranced. She finally gives up and leaves-- extreme close-up of unblinking eyes. Slowly the technology disappears one by one-- multiple angles for this one. Eventually, he gets up and acts concerned. He looks around and opens the fridge, paces his house, looking for something to do. Jump cuts signal the passing of time. We hear the ticking of the clock he runs his fingers through his hair again and again, he picks up books off the coffee table again and again. Clicks the on and off button of the tv again and again. It's an endless cycle. He ends up attempting to drown himself and wakes up gasping for breath in a physician's office with a VR headset and some headphones on. It has all been a simulation and when the young therapist asks how long he thinks he's "been under" he replies a feasible (to the viewer) two weeks. The therapist replies he's been under for 5 minutes. "Did I make any progress?" "No." The psychiatrist asks his assistant once Pedro leaves how many more appointments he has for the week, she replies 237.

Storyboard (rough sketch)