✩Discussions, Improved Ideas, and Extras

In AICE Media today, we were split into groups to get feedback from our fellow classmates about our plans for our openings. When I told my group about my plot, they all mentioned how it was pretty similar to the movie, Tenet. I had heard of the movie and watched the trailer, and though I’m very interested in the plot, I never found the opportunity to watch it. Everyone in my group said that I should watch it to make sure my film’s plot doesn’t get too close to Tenet’s plot. So, the next thing I’ll do to progress on my film will be to watch Tenet (and likely make a blog post about it). I don’t think Tenet and my plot have the same aesthetic though, Tenet appears to have more of a sci-fi/action feel whereas my idea tends to lean more into a coming of age feel. I will still take a look at the movie (especially because I’ve heard it’s really good) to see if it gives me any ideas.

(The poster for the aforementioned movie, Tenet)

Another thing my group recommended me was in regards to the actual opening shots. I told them that I wanted my opening to feel like a coming of age movie so that the integration of fantasy elements made the film more intriguing. I was given the advice to have Julia sitting in a coffee shop, doing her thing, and then she can bump into 404. This idea to open the film is neat, and I think starting with Julia already doing something rather than the stereotypical “getting out of bed to get ready for school.” I would like to note that I forgot to mention to my group that I didn’t ever want my main characters to meet, they would be talking via text/phone calls. So, as much as I think having them meet up right at the beginning could be cool to play off of, it’s not what I had envisioned. I could still make it work though, and tie it into my original idea where 404 is passing by locations that would be important later in the story.


I can start with an establishing shot of a coffee shop (or some similar building) where we can see a character seated nearby. The camera then shifts over to this character, 404, who is looking at her phone with something like sadness or remorse. She then puts her phone away, gets up, and walks away, turning back to the building briefly. As she continues walking, she passes by Julia. From there the focus shifts away from 404 to remain on Julia as she enters said coffee shop/building. I imagine her listening to some music (which means I need to find some non-copyrighted music and/or reach out to an artist which is a little scary lol) and then Julia receives a text message (or phone call, I’m still deciding) from an unknown contact that says something along the lines of “I have to go, I’ll miss you.” This leaves Julia confused, and she texts (once again, or calls) Forrest about this strange message. They pick up and essentially tell Julia that it’s just a random number, nothing for her to worry about. I think that would be the end of the opening. It would introduce something weird that would later be expanded on, but on the first watch, the audience would not suspect anything about this interaction.


I have two more things to quickly touch on before I finish the post:

1. I spoke with some of my friends from other media classes and we spoke briefly about collaborating on the project. I’m not sure if this is something we are seriously going to act on, but it’s comforting to know I have some friends willing to help if I reach out to them.
2. Since I envisioned Julia listening to music as she walks into the building (mainly to avoid any awkward silences in the film), I need to find some music. At the moment, I have three options:
• Instrumental tracks from Homestuck. I’m pretty sure they don’t have copyright but I will have to check on this, and also dig through the vast number of songs from the comic to find the one that fits.

(The cover of one of Homestuck’s albums titled “coloUrs and mayhem.”)

• Songs from Wilbur’s album “Your City Gave Me Asthma.” I also don’t think this has copyright, and though most of the songs wouldn’t fit the film, the song “Since I Saw Vienna” is one of my personal favorites, and has a nice tune that is simple enough that it might work.

(The cover of Wilbur’s album, “Your City gave me Asthma.”)

• OR a song by mxmtoon. I know she has excellent, chill music, and the song “Fever Dream,” feels so perfect, but I am pretty sure I would need to reach out to her in order to get permission to use her songs. Reaching out to her would be a little out of my comfort zone, but I would do it if I needed to.

(The cover of mxmtoon’s single “Fever Dream,” which was later the first track on her album “Dawn.”)

And that's it! You’ve reached the end of the post :)

(Fun fact: I wrote this whole post while at the beach)

✩Characters? Characters.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about my film’s characters, both in what their names are and what their personalities are like. So I did a few things.


First, I took a look at Pinterest to get some inspiration. As soon as I saw this photo by artist alaylays, I knew that this was exactly the type of character I wanted One to be like.

(Art by alaylays! Check them out on Instagram! Similar to how I envision One)

I love the comfy yet stylish indie aesthetic that this character has going on, not to mention the long hair with bangs really fits to me. At the moment, I’m not sure if I have an actress who would fit this description, but I do want to make sure the indie aesthetic is visible. This way, she can appear as an interesting character to follow, while also not appearing too much like a traditional main character. Though I want to make sure she doesn’t hit the “I’m not like other girls” trope typically seen in teenage films (she's probably going to be a teenager because I’m a teenager and have other teenagers at my disposal to use as actors). So, I don't want to make One appear too quirky, instead, I want One to be more goofy and plain. For example, maybe she plays guitar and watches a lot of popular TV shows, but isn’t particularly fond of sour foods and high-risk scenarios like bungee-jumping. I also want to make her LGBTQ+, likely bisexual; however, this won’t be something the film focuses heavily on, merely something mentioned or implied.


Now for a name for character One? I feel like the name Julia Summers fits. I want her name to fit her unique, indie, yet almost overlooked persona. I ideally want her to appear as nothing more than a regular girl whose story at first glance doesn't seem eye-catching or movie-worthy, something I feel a lot of people can relate to, especially in my target audience (teens and young adults) due to the popular trend of assigning people as roles in a movie.


I’d also like to give Julia a best friend that she can turn to in all the confusion that Two brings Julia’s life. I feel it could be super neat if her best friend was pretty skeptical of Two’s existence but would continue to help Julia on her search for the truth because they care for Julia. Though they wouldn’t get a lot of focus throughout the film, I feel they would be a valuable character to add to the story. I imagine this character, whose name I like as Forrest (I don't have a last name for them yet), to be very close friends with Julia for a long time, and a lot calmer than Julia. They would be able to understand Julia and help her by being a good listener. I totally didn’t plan this, but the image I had in my head for Forrest matched up really well with this image I saw on Pinterest by the same artist I linked above, alaylays, featuring the character design I showed above for Julia.

(Art by alaylays on twitter! This is how I imagine Julia and Forrest’s appearances and dynamic)

Now, for Two. Honestly, I don't have a solid idea for her, though I know she will be female, lesbian, and have an edgier aesthetic. I ideally want her to appear (that is if I decide that I would like to start my film with Two visiting locations seen later in the film) much different than Julia or Forrest, to solidify that she is not from the same world as Julia and that she is here to fight (what she is fighting, I don't know yet). This artwork by leecheedoodles on Instagram of Buttercup from the Powerpuff Girls gives a good idea of what I would like Two to look like. Also, the character Lake/MT from Infinity Train season 2 gives off the vibes of the tough, strong, but emotional type of character that I want Two to come off as.

(Check out the artist, leecheedoodles on Instagram! The version of Buttercup on the furthest right is closest to my idea of Two)

(A screenshot from the show, Infinity Train. MT/Lake is the silver character on the right)

As for her name… Honestly, I’ve grown a liking to referring to her as “Two.” And, the way that my story seems to be progressing, the audience would rarely see her, or learn anything about her until the climax/end of the movie. As a result, I think Julia (or Forrest) should give Two a nickname. Since I really like the number name and Two is not from Julia and Forrest’s world, I think the nickname “404” is very fitting. If Julia tries to find 404, she won’t be able to find anything since 404 doesn’t exist in Julia’s world, which is very reminiscent of the “404 Not Found” error pages that can be found on computers.


So, with a better idea of my characters, and finalized names, I feel I have a better idea of what my film opening will look like. Hopefully, I can begin getting ideas for different shots that will make up my film opening.


Also, if you want to check out my Pinterest boards I created for Julia, 404, and Forrest, you can check them out here.


Anyways, that's all I got for today!!

✩The Last 5 Years Redux ft. Opening Thoughts

Welcome back to the blog!! In my last post, I talked about the musical adaptation of “The Last 5 Years” and I really enjoyed the musical as a whole. So, I wanted to see if/how I could incorporate elements of this story into my film opening.


I really enjoy how the musical utilizes its two actors to independently tell the story. The method of distribution (musical) helps make this format of storytelling possible, and a movie is very similar to a musical. So, seeing how successful the reverse timeline is displayed in The Last 5 Years, maybe I could use this method to tell my film opening? In my last blog post, I talked about what my plans for my film could be. With what I have in mind, I initially thought that the story would only show the story through character One’s point of view so that the audience, nor the main character, gets the full story. This allows for fans to have multiple theories about what the truth of the story is.


Although, if I plan on using the idea for the film opening that I described a few posts ago (it would be shots of Two at locations that One would be seen at later in the film), I’m not sure how I would incorporate seeing things from both characters perspectives, primarily because I didn’t want to delve too deeply into Two’s motivations and reasons for being in One’s world. Although, in theory, I don’t have to worry too much about this, since my film opening is only 2 minutes, which is not nearly enough time to switch perspectives between the two main characters.


I will say, as much as I love the prospect of switching characters, for simplicity’s sake, I’ll likely keep the story from One’s perspective. This way, I don’t have to worry about trying to include any foreshadowing in the opening or worry about a change in either aesthetic or tone of the film alternates between One and Twos perspective.


After deciding that I won’t switch perspectives, I did want to throw out that I don’t know which type of film opening I want to go for. I’ve been thinking for a while now that perhaps I want to start off the film similar to a coming of age or slice of life film. This way, when One suddenly interacts with Two, we are just as lost as One is. (Somewhat unrelated, but I really need to come up with my characters so I don’t just refer to them as One and Two, I think that's what my next blog post will be about but shh! Spoilers!) I think that starting my film as a “coming of age” or at least one that details One’s simple, plain life (at least before Two is introduced) would make the integration of fantasy that much more impactful for the audience.


Maybe I’ll go back and watch the first Harry Potter movie to gain some inspiration for my opening, so I can start planning my shots and prepare for filming.


Later gators, see you soon :)

✩The Last 5 Years

Okay, so, in my last blog post I talked about how I spoke to my brother to gain his insight on my project. He gave me countless ideas, as well as another piece of media for me to examine. Today, I’ll be discussing the musical, “The Last 5 Years.” It is a movie as well, but I’ll only be discussing the musical version. If you're interested in watching, here's a link to watch the musical :).

(The playbill for the Broadway production of “The Last 5 Years.” )


This show follows the relationship of Jamie and Cathy as it starts and ends, and the aforementioned characters are the only ones the audience sees through the duration of the performance. If you check out the Wikipedia page for the musical, it’ll explain what happens in each scene of the show. I found it to be confusing, so I’ll take over.


The show opens with Cathy lamenting over her ex, Jamie. Since this is a musical, it is important to notice that all of the storytelling is done via song. After she finishes, the story switches to Jamie singing about how excited he is over a girl he just met, this being Cathy. At this point, one might be confused if the two are talking about the same person or not, since Cathy has already broken up with a man named Jamie while he has just met a woman named Cathy. This is where the reverse timeline comes in. Both characters are talking about the same relationship, but from both different perspectives and points in time. Jamie is telling the story from its beginning to end, while Cathy is describing her POV from finish to finish.


To simplify, Jamie is traveling forwards in time as Cathy travels backward.


Throughout the show, the two continue singing through the story in their respective directions. In almost every scene, each character stands alone as they perform, which makes it easier to differentiate between the opposing timelines and minimize confusion. It also provides for some very cool moments when the characters do come together. The characters unite at both the moment Jamie proposes and at the end of the musical. Here, Cathy is telling about her first time meeting Jamie and how excited she is about their budding relationship. Jamie, on the other hand, is bidding his final farewell to Cathy. When she says “goodbye, until tomorrow!” Jamie simply says “goodbye.”


“The Last 5 Years” gives me some interesting thoughts on how I want to make my film. I’ll discuss these thoughts in my next blog post.


Thank you for reading!! Have a lovely day/night <3

✩Getting Some Advice

It’s been a little over a week since I was given this project, and with my research into many different uses of time travel in media, I think I have a pretty decent idea of where I want the plot of my film to be. Let’s recap where my head is currently...

• Fantasy genre
• Target audience: teens-young adults
• Set in the real world
• Include magical elements, but nothing too flashy, costly, or challenging
• No ensemble cast, focus on 2-3 main characters
• The plot centered around characters living on opposite traveling timelines
• To spare confusion, don’t explain how the time-traveling phenomenon works

Armed with these concepts and my wild imagination, I decided to call my brother, Jake. I often turn to him when I am creating stories because he is an avid film/story loves like myself. We have watched many TV shows together such as Steven Universe, WandaVision, Cobra Kai, Voltron, and the Dream SMP. The two of us have spent countless hours discussing lore, characterization, motives, and symbolism in the media we indulge in. Not to mention, he took AICE Media when he was in high school and is currently taking courses in filming at UF, so I highly value his opinion. Thankfully, he had some time to chat about my film opening ideas.


I shared with Jake all my thoughts regarding my project, and he really liked the ideas I had come up with. He thought the time travel idea was a super neat plotline to work with. He proposed an interesting way that I could open my film: the character who is traveling backward visits numerous locations that would be later seen in the film. (Side note, we dubbed the character traveling forwards as “One” and the character traveling backward “Two” to aid in conversation). I think this idea is super cool and definitely something I can work with; however, this implies that One and Two live in the same world, which I had not thought of. I had initially thought that it might make more sense to have the characters live in two different worlds. This would make it simpler for the audience to comprehend how One and Two can communicate. But Jakes’s idea made me rethink.


Wouldn’t it be interesting to have both characters live in the same world? The characters could talk about places the other knows about, and even attempt to find one another. It could make for a more compelling story than my original idea in my opinion. I believe there is more for me to play with if One and Two lived in the same world.


I had mentioned in a previous blog post that a theme I might want to work with is how “magic is everywhere” or something along those lines. Using Jake’s inspiration, perhaps I could make my story follow One, but they somehow stumble upon a method to communicate with Two. Though I haven’t decided what this is yet, it is perhaps something I can foreshadow in my film opening. From there, One is confused as to why Two contacted One and who Two is. Two, however, is bidding their farewell to One. This could be because Two has other places to be, and only visited One’s world to take care of something, most likely magical. From there, One tries desperately to find out who Two is and how to find them for reasons I have yet to develop. But, when One finally reaches Two's first conversation with One, One finally learns Two’s backstory, but by then there is nothing One can do to bring back their friend. One would have to continue on with their normal life, leaving the audience to wonder if the story was all made up or not.


Jake’s idea ultimately spiraled a major brainstorming session on my part, and this idea is super unique and exciting to me. He also recommended that I check out the musical “The Last 5 Years,” for it also utilizes a reverse timeline structure to tell its story, which I will discuss in my next blog post.


Shoutout to Jake for helping me out, your advice has made me super hyped to start filming!!


Well, that's all for today, thanks for reading!

✩Being Homestuck Isn’t a Problem Anymore!

The other day, I was recently reminded of a fandom that I was a part of in middle school that utilizes the concept of a reverse timeline. I knew the concept was familiar to me when I began developing my film ideas, but I couldn’t figure out where from. Turns out, I remembered the concept being used in a popular comic called “Homestuck.”


Similarly to the Dream SMP, the plotline of Homestuck is complicated and extremely long, so I’m not going to explain it in its entirety. If I did that, I would be here all week. Instead, I’ll only talk about how Homestuck incorporates the reverse timeline idea.


Since the story of Homestuck typically follows the protagonist, John Egbert, the first time that we see evidence of the reverse timeline is from his perspective. The reader sees John respond via text to another character, whose name we later find out is Karkat Vantas. At this moment in time, it is John’s first time speaking with Karkat. Karkat, however, says this:




(A photo showing Karkat explaining to John over messages about the reverse timelines when John first speaks to Karkat).


John has a hard time believing this, and so do the readers. Primarily because this idea of opposite timelines, someone knowing more about you than you do about them, and future selves speaking with past selves are unnatural concepts to humans. In our non magical world, none of these things exist, which makes it hard for our mind to comprehend abstract thoughts like the ones listed above. Karkat does do a pretty good job at explaining the basics of the reverse timelines idea, even if John remains suspicious. As we continue reading, Karkats words prove true. John continues to learn more about Karkat while Karkat seems to know less about John. And, like Karkat said, he has to repeat himself a lot. When we finally arrive at the highly anticipated first contact with Karkat from Karkat's perspective, it is a stark (and quite funny) difference in each other's first and last conversations with one another.




(An excerpt from Karkat's (grey) first and John’s (blue) last conversation with one another).


John does a much better job at explaining the strange backwards conversations the two engage in. We also are given a bit of backstory in the dialogue as to why Karkat chose to speak to John backwards. Spoiler alert, it’s because Karkat embarrasses himself. He also chose to speak to John right at the end of the available time that Karkat can converse with John, which means if Karkat wanted to speak more with John, it could only be past Johns. Note: Karkat's access to John’s timeline is never explained in clear detail, the mechanic is pretty much chalked up to Karkat and his other friends having created the world/dimension that John lives in. There's a lot of strange time shenanigans and general weirdness in Homestuck, so a lot of times the readers simply have to accept that these things just happen in the story.


By examining Homestuck, I now know that there is a way for me to incorporate my reverse timeline idea into my story successfully. I also know that I could potentially take inspiration from how Homestuck doesn’t explain how this happens. Doing so could prevent myself and my viewers' heads from hurting as I try to explain how a reverse timeline works in modern day. I mean, it has worked before. I could also provide no explanation as to how the magic works as a way to share with the audience how “magic is everywhere” or even “the power of imagination.” These themes will work really well with my modern day setting, and could be a cool take on a fantasy film. Homestuck has given me plenty of ideas that will be helpful in creating my final project.


I’ll see you soon :))

✩More Space/Time Shenanigans

To recap where my head is at regarding the story of my film, I want to do something in the fantasy genre where time travel is the main source of the supernatural. However, the time travel will be as minimal as possible to prevent complexity that could drive away consumers. I already have an idea for my story's plot in regards to time travel, but I thought it could be beneficial to explore all of my options.


I don’t think I’ve said it before, but I have been interested in a variety of fandoms. One of which is Voltron: Legendary Defender. This show was originally released in the 1980s and saw a reboot in 2016. It gathered a large fanbase, myself included. I feel the show would be classified in the “sci-fi” genre, due to its interstellar travel, advanced technology, and time travel. Though, the show used time travel in a manner unlike Doctor Who and Back to the Future. In the show, a character, Keith Kogane, leaves the main cast to go on his own adventure with his mom. The two travel through warped space and find what is called the “Quantum Abyss.” Here, Keith and his mom bond with one another, and find a group of an almost extinct alien species. For the two, they stayed in the Quantum Abyss for two years, but for everyone else, it was not even a year. As such, he time traveled. Here is a visual of what Keith’s timeline looks like compared to the story’s linear timeline:

What I’m trying to say by sharing Voltron’s use of time travel is that there are ways to include time travel (or weird timelines) in a story that doesn’t make the plot difficult to understand. I will reiterate, that I have grown quite fond of the reverse timeline concept since I feel like there is a lot of room for creativity, whereas Voltron’s timeline weirdness feels a lot more limiting. I'm starting to get a lot of ideas for my film plot, so I'm super excited to conjure my opening.


Anyways, see you soon!