✩omg guys the cast list is out

As a theatre kid, I thought the name was funny. ANYWAYS, as you can tell by the title, I’ve got my cast for the opening!


I mentioned before that I had a few friends I was planning on asking and that I had some concerns about having non-actors for my film. As a perfectionist and as I mentioned before, a theatre kid, I realized that I wanted actual actors to play Julia and 404. So, I reached out to two of my theatre friends!


As Julia: Miranda!


I’ve been friends with her since 7th grade, and she's a really talented actress. In fact, she's currently playing Doralee in our school production of 9 to 5! She has mid-length light brown hair, wears a lot of cute sweaters, and has a sweet look about her. For these reasons, I think she's a great fit to act as Julia. Plus, I trust her to have big facials when Julia isn’t speaking.


As 404: Sophia!


She’s helped out one of my other friends in AICE Media Studies with their Music Marketing Project, has done theatre with me since elementary school, and already has a somewhat “edgy alt” look/style about her. We’ve been friends since kindergarten, and I’m confident in her abilities to convey the complex emotions of 404 as she opens the film and bids her goodbye to Julia.


As an added bonus, the three of us are already friends, so filming won’t be awkward. Also, my actresses have chemistry with one another which I believe will make their lines and presence on screen with one another appear natural rather than uncomfortable.


Since both of them agreed, I asked if we could start filming over spring break, more specifically, Wednesday, March 24th and they both agreed!! Woo!! My next course of action is to send them the screenplay so they can get a feel for the scene and potentially type of a schedule/shooting plan (like what shots we film first, when we do a run-through of lines and blocking), and also a prop and costume list. I’ll post the documents to my blog.


That's all I got for today, I just wanted to update you on the progress I’ve been making. Overall, super excited to begin filming, and with two talented actresses no less :)


See you soon! Byeeeeee <3

✩In Regards to Music

Okay, so, I know I mentioned in my post titled Discussions, Improved Ideas and Extras, one of the extras was about including music. So, since I’ve done some more planning for the scene and listening to some music. This means I’ve got some UPDATES AYOOOO!!


First, let’s recap the main songs I’ve been thinking about including in the scene.


NUMBER ONE: Fever dream by mxmtoon
(The best option, though slightly more upbeat than I envisioned the perfect song to be. However, the lyrics are perfect for Julia’s character)


NUMBER TWO: Since I Saw Vienna by Wilbur
(Not the perfect option, but the lyrics are also quite fitting even if the vibe of the song doesn’t really match the aesthetic of my film)


NUMBER THREE: Ocean Stars Falling from Homestuck
(I’m really trying to find a good Homestuck song to use (they’re all instrumental and I’m fairly confident they aren’t copyrighted) but most Homestuck songs are very high energy and this one is no exception. It is one of the tamer songs I listened to though)


NUMBER FOUR: Homefree from Homestuck 

(Same as the other Homestuck one, it’s just so hard to find chill songs from Homestuck when every song is created to play under either epic fight sequences or sad moments. These two were some of the best I could find)


With my top options listed, I had to sit and think. When I wrote my storyboard, I didn’t include that Julia would be listening to music. Also, since she’s entering in the middle of the scene, incorporating the music would be a challenge to incorporate correctly. Not to mention I already have a lot of audio files I’ll need to be working with so honestly, the less audio I have to worry about, the better.


THE FINAL VERDICT: yeah, I don’t think I’m going to include any music. The process of getting a perfect song is arduous, I don’t have a lot of time for my film already, and the location of a song in the opening is now ideal. SO I’m just opting not to do it. Besides, it would be nice to have more focus on 404 and Julia’s relationship.


This makes me feel so much more relieved and makes the opening a less daunting task.


Anyways, I’m gonna go eat ice cream. See ya!!

✩Snip Snip!

Listen I thought the title was funny because today, I’ve got some sad news. I timed my screenplay (see my last post :P) and as it turns out, I will have to cut it before Julia calls Forrest.


This is how long the opening would be if I included Forrest:

(Yikes,,, that's way over the 2-minute limit for my opening)

And this is how long the opening scene would be if I cut it before Forrest is introduced:

(Much better!!!)

I did mess up a few times in the actions and lines so I’m sure that the time can go down a bit, especially if I cut some of the parts where the characters would be just walking or processing their situation (aka 404 crying and preparing to leave and Julia’s shock and setting up her studying). Though I’m upset that I wouldn’t get to introduce Forrest, Julia could probably talk to them about the weird call in the next scene. Besides, cutting them out of the opening means one less actor to find. 

We will all miss you, Forrest. o7 (look it’s like a person saluting! The “o” is the face and the “7” is the arm! Sorry for the little tangent, I wanted to say goodbye to Forrest properly :))


And with that, I bid you all a great day/night/time.


See you later!

✩Screenplay ayup!

My next plan of action after finishing my storyboard was to time how long the scene was so I could determine how much of it fit under the 2-minute limit. So, I was initially going to time it out; however; I realized I couldn’t time the scene without having a scene to time. Simply having the shots planned doesn’t account for the lines and movements of each shot. As a result. I have begun writing my screenplay. Hooray!! As daunting of a task as this might seem, I love writing stories which means that this isn’t the worst way to spend a Tuesday night.

(My screenplay for the first scene! This is subject to change, but I'll update the blog if it does. #Notsponsored by StudioBinder where I typed up the whole scene :P)

I’m pretty proud of how the screenplay turned out! It makes me feel like I could write a whole story. I don’t think I’ll time the whole scene out tonight, hopefully, it doesn’t end up super long! But, if it is, I can always chop it before Julia calls Forrest. Anyways, I have other homework I need to complete, but my progress on my final project so far has made me elated.


See you later!! :D

✩Storyboarding

Ah yes, the storyboard. In previous blog posts I've pretty much said everything about my film opening that I could before making my storyboard, so, here it is :)








Phew! Ok, so, I have a few notes regarding my storyboard

1. I’m not too sure of what the timing of all the shots will be, so I have planned that if the section before Julia calls up Forrest is plenty of time, then I’ll cut that whole segment. How I’ll find out if I need Forrest or not is by timing myself saying the lines and each shot and how long the movements will take.
2. I realize now that I’ll have a lot of audio files to work with if I use Forrest, Julia, and 404’s dialogue, so I have a few ideas on how I could deal with this. Either I record some clips of the character Forrest to add more dynamic shots and reduce my concern about adding a filter to the audio, or I say “screw it” and roll with the task I’ve given myself. Either way, I’ll update the blog with what I decide.
3. My last major concern is that the actors I have in mind to ask to participate won’t be the best actors. They’re my friends who fit the look I want each character to have, but I’m worried they might not capture the full intensity of 404’s goodbye and Julia’s intense confusion and overthinking. So my options are, asking some of my friends in drama to fill in these roles, fill in one of the characters myself, or just continue with the people I had in mind and make it work.

I think that's all for today, I feel a lot better about my opening now that I have a storyboard though I know I should start picking up the pace.


Peace out bean sprouts! :p

✩Finally: Tenet!!

Hey guys! This just in, my bean hurts. My brain is struggling to comprehend the new movie I just watched: Tenet. That's right!! I finally got around to watching it and oh boy was it worth it. I promise I won’t spoil the movie, I think it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen, so I’d recommend watching it yourself. Instead, I’ll do my best to scrape the surface of what pieces of the movie I can try and use in my film while doing my best not to spoil anything. Here goes nothing!

(A screenshot from the movie, Tenet! Please go watch it, it’s fantastic!)

The plot is very time travel-focused (obviously) and at many times is very convoluted and challenging. This is due to the strange science terms, time loops, and fast-paced plot. It does sort of seem to follow the reverse timeline. Though the characters don’t exist of opposite timelines, many of the characters and objects travel backward through time to fight. It’s in a different method than I plan on using for my story since the characters travel back in time and end up in the same area as their past self. However, in this way, both are similar. Honestly, I’m not sure if my explanation is any good, but the point I’m trying to make is that Tenet does use a “reverse timeline” method in its plot, though I don’t think I’ll use my “reverse timeline” in that way.


Without getting too deep into spoilers (because I highly recommend watching it!) two of the characters’ relationship does follow a reverse timeline to some degree. Following the Protagonists story, we see him bid farewell to a character whom he has only recently met. The character goes on to explain how the two of them have already been friends, saying that they had made countless memories with the Protagonist already. This means that the other character had already met the Protagonist before we saw the Protagonist meet said friend. Because of this, the two Tenet character’s friendship is similar to 404 and Julia’s friendship.


One thing I would like to try and take from Tenet is the goodbye scene. It’s bittersweet, knowing that we are at the end of the Protagonists friend’s timeline, but that the Protagonist will spend more time with them in the past (or the Protagonists future). At the opening of my film, 404 would be bidding her farewell to Julia, so I want to capture this bittersweet moment between the two: 404 is happy for the memories the two shared while simultaneously upset that she has to leave, Julia, on the other hand, is confused, yet almost hopeful because of 404’s words.


I am so glad I got to watch Tenet, not only because it aided me in deciding what my film opening will be like, but it was also such a cool movie. I was so invested in the story and would recommend it to anyone.


And with that, I’ll see you later <3

✩Communication Methods

So, as much as I wanted to talk about watching Tenet in this blog post, I might have to hold off on that. I haven’t gotten the chance to watch it, yet I might have some time this week. Hopefully, I’ll be able to talk about it.


Today I’d like to discuss how Julia and 404 are able to communicate with one another. I have a few options that I have been debating, so let’s go over them together.



First option: crystal pendants


I got these for my birthday, and I love them a lot. Using these as the method for Julia and 404 to communicate was something I thought about back when I envisioned the two girls in different worlds. Since I changed it to where they are both in the same world, I’m not sure if using the crystals still works. Though, if I wanted to highlight 404 and Julia’s friendship being magical, these would be a neat option. The biggest challenge of using them would be conveying how the girls communicate with one another. I’m not going to put too much thought into it, mainly because I’ve already decided that I’m going to set the story in reality. So, I won’t be using these.

(These are what the pendants look like :))

Second option: texting


This is the method that the characters in Homestuck used to communicate with one another. So I know that it works in storytelling, however, I would need to find a way to display the messages on screen. The whole reason that I chose the reverse timeline idea is that I wouldn’t need any graphics (and because I like it) so I’m not too keen on using texting as my way for Julia and 404 to communicate. Plus, the audience wouldn’t be able to hear each character’s tonality which I find important to the progression of the story. This leaves me with only one option.




Third option: phone calls


If my characters are never going to meet face to face but I want to hear the characters speak to one another, then calls are the only option that I have left. I don’t think phone calls are a bad idea in any way, in fact, I think it’s the best idea for the film. We would get a lot of lines from 404, which would help the audience’s immersion in Julia’s story. This is because they would hear 404 and could believe Julia when she insists that 404 is real. Not to mention, using phone calls means less complex editing for me!


This leads me to an improved intro idea that I feel confident in. I have a vision for it in my head, but I’ll make a blog post about it later this week after I make my storyboard. One last thing, I think I know who I’ll ask to play my characters, but I won’t spoil that just yet.

I’ll see you soon!! <3