editting post one

It is now time for me to begin the editing process of this project. In my opinion I enjoy having to edit the clips, however I think planning the project is still more fun than editing is. 

For now I only have the beginning of my opening, however I still want to edit what I can with what I have, so that's what I did. I started by of course putting the clips in order and then cutting and making other edits from there.

For now I had to change the speed of one of my shots because I felt there wasn't a long enough pause between the end of the shot and the cut to the other, making the sequence feel rushed and overall just confusing to follow because the shot ended too quickly. I was having issues fixing this however because in the shot there is a plant next to my front door and by the end of the shot the wind began to blow. This is an issue because if i slow down the clip or freeze frame it or just do anything really then the edit would be really obvious, making it look bad, however I overcame this by simply slightly slowing down the clip just enough so it looks like a small breeze without looking obvious that it was slowed.

Another change I made on all the shots was I changed the temperature of the clips to make them seem warmer, however the temperature will change as the opening continues, I raised the contrast a bit to make the clips look better as well as focus on other colors more, and I lowered the saturation because I thought some colors and lighting used were overwhelming and didn't look how I wanted them to, however now they do because I made this change.

This is an image of my screen while I was editing on my laptop. I am using iMovie to edit my opening and I'm really enjoying the app and everything it offers, as well as how easy it is to navigate and utilize.

Shooting process

 Soo, today I finally was able to shoot some shots for my film, I know.. very late, however I still need a few more that I will hopefully finish filming soon. But on bright side I was able to get the bigger scenes filmed today so the rest of the shooting process should be pretty smooth.

The shots I filmed today were the shots of my car pulling into the driveway and my friends walking in and leaving my house and the scenes that will be used to show the credits along with the title. Recording these shots went pretty smoothly since my friend helped me record.

In the first shot, where I was driving past and taking the turn onto my street, we had to do a lot of takes since there was a lot of cars that kept passing by or following extremely close behind me and making the shot turn out really odd. We eventually got a good shot where it was a tracking shot with the car with a zoom in and out as it passed by and got further and closer away.

For this second scene the shooting process was relatively smooth as we did the same type of tracking shot as we did earlier but this time on the street where the opening takes place so it was less busy and had less traffic. 

We then shot the scene of my friends entering my house and the scene of them leaving. These two scenes are extremely similar as they are pretty much the same but at different times. For the beginning of this scene we used a tracking shot to follow us walking to the front door and entering my house as the camera stopped with a mid shot of the door. We then did the same steps but backwards excluding the tracking shot when they left, so we had the mid shot of the door and then we had them leave the house and out the frame to where I would close the front door and cut to the next scene shortly after.

bloopers:

I wanted to add bloopers since I don't want to post too many of the clips I plan on using and the bloopers are kind of funny and were apart of the shooting process.

incase the video doesn't load this is the google drive link to the video

In this clip it was performed well, however they said my real name instead of my character's name

Set design

 So as I established in past posts, the set is going to be my room. This will be established as Lucas' room in my film opening. 

For the set I wanted to create some origami butterflies to hang up and put as decoration in his room. I want this to represent his favorite animal so it can stand as the symbolism I wanted the butterflies to be. The reason I want the butterflies to be very subtle is because I want it to stand as foreshadowing to the end of the movie where he would technically have changed as a person and live better. I love endings like this and when characters end up like that so I wanted to foreshadow that he was able to change and feel better as if he did have that ending if this was a true complete film.

Another thing about the set is the things he will be interacting with. Lucas will be turning off the string lights in his room. The string lights will represent how he acts when he is not alone, as they are yellow lights they represent how he masks himself and behaves happy for others. The lights turning off and being turned off by Lucas can also represent him shutting down and feeling numb and doing this without using words but by actions and symbolism.

Tomorrow is when I film so everything I have been talking about will be shown tomorrow and honestly, I'm really excited to finally finish this project. I don't say this because I want it to end but because I want this project to finish so I can see what everything I've learned in this class can create!

Costume design

 I wanted to go over the costume design of Lucas in this post. At first I was just going to put him in any outfit I had, however I wanted to actually give him an outfit that could mean something to the audience.

The outfit I want him to where is going to be very covering. What I mean is he's going to wear a jacket with a black shirt underneath and just regular blue jeans. The jeans don't represent anything, however the black jacket will represent how he covers up how he really feels and the black exaggerates that as it can represent his lack of color when regarding how he feels. 

The black shirt I want him to wear has pretty much the same idea. However, I want his friends that he is going to walk with to wear bright colors. The reason I want this is to contrast with his dark outfit. This will represent how they bring color to his life and how he relies on them to feel something. While this might seem sweet, it's supposed to show how much he really relies on them as later on in the opening everything will be dark and gloomy without them. This will also be shown through his outfit as he will be wearing another mostly black outfit when he is alone. 

These are clothes that I already had, however this is what I want him to wear pretty much throughout the entire opening:

Planning post

 I want to go over how I plan on formatting and the order of my credits as well as when I will put my title. I want to first establish my title for my film since I do not remember if I already stated one on here, so from this post on this is the official title for my opening. Drum roll please!... The title is going to be... Clueless!

I know this post is about the credit placement, however I want to elaborate on why I chose the title clueless. I want the title to be pretty straight forward to how Lucas feels since I want the piece to represent how he feels inside. I think the title would be a good contrast to how the opening begins, since he will be happy around his friends in sunny lighting that will cause the audience to feel good and happy. I also like how it's just a simple title for such complex emotions since he is trying to figure it out and how he feels can be simplified into one word.

Anyway I wanted the credits to play in the beginning while a song is playing in the background. I plan on having them placed in the lower corners of the screen while a car is shown pulling up to a house and Lucas and his friends get out and walk in. I want the credits to just be white with a typical comic sans font so it can be seen like it was made by a teenager writing the credits. I think it's a nice way to introduce Lucas and his friends with a friendly way of showing the credits.

For the title placement I want it to come right after the credits end. The credits will end when Lucas' friends walk out the door and the scene transitions to night. So what will happen is his friends will walk out, the door will close behind them, the title will show up, then disappear when the scene transitions to night time. I kinda like how the title will transition the credits sequence to the actual opening of the film rather than just behave as the ending of the opening. I feel like this approach also makes the opening really feel like an opening since I can easily continue with the film shortly after the opening is "over" to make the project really seem like a film opening rather than just a school project.

Here is some references to what I want my credit sequence to be like:

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Parasite

production company logo creation

 Today I created my production studio's name and logo. I made the logo on canva since I've used it before and it's an easy resource to use and create things with. For the name of my studio I went with the name starlight studios, which I know is a little cheesy, however I really like names based off space and stars in general and I wanted to name it something I think is cool. I also like this name because it makes it seem like my studio produces movies as if they are stars in the making just waiting to burn bright, which I also love that idea.

For the design, I wanted it to continue following that starlight look. I also wanted the name to be surrounded by stars, sort of like the movies it's created surrounds the company since they produced them.

For the font of the name I wanted it to seem elegant. I also wanted to make the name glow a little and stand out against the black background, that could be seen as space, because I wanted the studio to follow my film opening's approach where lighting is going to be a big aspect of the production. Therefore I think it's fitting to have the name glow in the light of it's stars, or it's movies, just how my film opening will use light as a way of creating it's message.

mise en scene - location

My opening will primarily take place inside my own room since I want Lucas to be isolated and make sure he is shown in a private setting where he shows any vulnerability. I believe it's important he is shown being vulnerable in the privacy of his room because I think it can establish that he only feels comfortable being vulnerable when he is alone and in a private condition. The reason I want that to be established is because I want it to seem like he doesn't trust the world, therefore if this was an entire film then later on in the film it would show his distrust in the world and why he has that distrust towards everything. However for now his room and his vulnerability in his room will take place as a little establishment of his trust issues.

I plan on changing the decoration of my room a little for this opening. What I mean is that I want to create decorations like origami butterflies or print outs of his favorite butterfly among other things that will represent what he likes and provide symbolism to his mental state. I think for the butterfly idea I will create origami butterflies colored like the Viceroy butterfly and then have a net sitting somewhere in his room. I also thought it would be a good idea to have one of those pinned butterflies somewhere around my room. My only issue with that idea however is my fear of bugs and I don't want to own something like that.. let alone hang it up in my room.

These are pictures of my room from my doorway, the picture on the left is my room when my yellow lights are not plugged in and the right is when they are plugged in. As you can see, my room has many lights that provide the lighting that I will require for my opening. Another obvious fact about my room is the amount of decorations I have up, therefore it won't seem out of place for me to add more decorations that align with Lucas' personality. I think that is important because it will make him seem much more natural with his surroundings and the decorations of things he likes will be more fitting.

audio planning

I plan to begin my opening with a non diegetic  song called "You Don't Know" however, I only recently asked for permission to use it and have not gotten a response yet. Although my plan to use it will include having it be non diegetic at the beginning then transition to diegetic after the credits finish as Lucas turns off the record player that is 'playing' the song. 

The reason I want to do this transition is because I want the credits to be played while Lucas is on his way home from hanging out with friends and I want the scene to transition from the credits and him being with his friends smoothly to him being in his room alone.

However, I also have another plan using the same song with the credit scene where the song is just completely non diegetic. So my idea is that the credits will end when Lucas walks inside and there will be a still shot of the door during the day with the music playing still and when the credits finish the time is skip to nighttime where the music will stop and everything will be silent. 

The reason I like this idea is because I think it shifts the tone of the opening and causes the audience to feel a little uncomfortable from the sudden shift of music playing and daytime shining to uncomfortable silence and eerie nighttime.

I was thinking of giving Lucas an inner monologue throughout the opening, however I'm not sure if it would be necessary. I also think while it can give the audience a clear description of what he is actively thinking, it might kind of ruin the feeling I'm going for in the opening. Therefore while it might happen I'm not very sure I'll give him one in the final product. The reason is because I'm not sure it will serve any real purpose to his character despite giving him a voice and everything that would come from a monologue I plan on developing through other means.

In general, the entire opening will mostly be pretty silent with any noise being diegetic and from Lucas. I want it to be kind of silent so that the audience will be uncomfortable. I also think having the opening be silent will cause the audience to focus more on what is really happening and look into what he is feeling.

The cover picture for the song I asked to use

"You Don't Really Know" on bandcamp

mise en scene - lighting

 I've been talking about utilizing lighting a lot recently in my blogs.. so I think it's about time I make a bog post dedicated to talking about the lighting choices I'm going for and why I plan on using them!

I've already stated that I was going to use primarily Blue, purple and black with some warmer hues such as orange or red in some scenes. I can achieve these colors because thankfully I was gifted a bright LED stick and my room, the location where majority of the shots will be taken, also has lots of LED lights around.

For majority of my scene I will be using low-key lighting where Lucas' face is blacked out creating a silhouette. I want to do this so that he has this sort of emotional isolation when he is shown. I think doing this will also create some sort of mystery to him to emphasize how he feels confused and lost when he is alone.

Blue

I've discussed that blue tends to express sadness and sometimes isolation pretty often. I plan on utilizing blue for that exact purpose, to get the audience to feel and understand that Lucas is feeling lonely or sad in that scene. Therefore I will mainly only use it when he is alone or expressing that he is sad so I can really push and intensify the feeling of his loneliness and the extent of his sadness. 

I plan on putting blue along with other colors like orange for contrast when he is with friends or around others to show how when he is with people he feels excited, however that feeling of loneliness lingers anyway. I also plan on pairing blue with purple or black in many scenes to add levels of complexity to his emotions, making them hard to understand. The reason I'm doing this is to represent how confusing his own emotions can be and to show that he doesn't even really know how he feels.

Purple

I want to use purple to represent mystery and confusion. I think purple fits this role since it is a mix of two very different colors, red and blue, that both represent seemingly opposite feelings. While purple is usually used for intimate scenes or to represent royalty, I believe if I use it well and pair it with the right colors it can really represent how Lucas feels and cause the audience to feel and think what Lucas is.

I plan on pairing purple sort of strictly with black and blue because I don't want it to give off the wrong feeling. Purple can cause the audience to feel sad and it can represent mixed emotions, however if used alone I believe it might create a feeling I'm not going for.

Black

I want to use black so i can emphasize blue and purple. Since black can intensify and exaggerate other colors I think it adds a sense of depth so the other colors can really push the narrative that I'm trying to achieve.

 

character development

 his name

I have thought about how I want to develop my character and I realized I should proAbably create a name for him first. I decided to use the name my parents wanted to name me, but did not, because I feel like if I want to create a good character I want to be able to relate to him as much as possible, therefore his name will be Lucas. I'm not sure if I would show his name anywhere in the opening, however it could be important to give him a name anyway.

His interests

One of his interests or favorite animals would be the butterfly. I mentioned this in a past blog post and I am repeating myself so that his favorite animal is 100% the butterfly. I think he would like the viceroy most since it mimics the monarch butterfly for protection. I feel like his favorite butterfly could represent himself as he would portray himself as something he isn't maybe so he would be liked by others more and because he struggles to figure out his sense of self. I would show that he likes butterflies and specifically the viceroy by having drawings of it around his room or maybe origami of them posted around his walls or the ceiling. I kind of want to keep it as a background prop but still make it stand out enough to be noticed and can be related to his character.

how I want to develop Lucas

I would like to mainly develop him using lighting and other props that can symbolise his mental state or other topics considering what he is thinking. Like I said in previous posts I would like to use mostly cooler toned lighting for majority of the scenes that he is shown and I want to stick to that so I can develop him using lighting. For the props I would like to have them be his special interests such as the butterfly being his favorite bug/animal and him speaking using lots of sentence formulas utilizing semicolons. 

Another way I think he can be developed could be through experiences. I think showing what he is feelings through actions can be a good way to develop characters. Doing this paired with other aspects like the props and lighting can represent what I want him to be feeling in the moment.

I also think it's important to show at least once in the opening that he hides how he feels. This is what I meant about his favorite species of butterfly being the viceroy since he hides how he truly thinks. I was planning on showing this by having his lighting contrast with his friends lighting or show him out in public acting completely different than how he acts when he is left alone.

story board

It is time for me to create a storyboard for my opening!

A storyboard is a graphic that visually outlines a story before production. They typically only contain key scenes and shots and can contain a brief description of what is happening in the scene. I chose to do a storyboard since I have done a few before this project and I know what one should look like. The one I did for this opening contains only a few scenes since the scenes in my opening are going to be a little long, maximum 20 seconds-ish.

My storyboard

Theory incorporation

Representation theory

Stuart Hall - Representation is developed through language and 'signs' or symbols that are interpreted by the audience. Since the audience can never truly agree on a universal meaning for all signs and symbols, media texts often run into issues with developing accurate representation. but. he also argues it is important to analyze the meaning of these signs and symbols to ascertain the intentions of the content creator.

Incorporation

In my last post I discussed my idea of my opening and I did some research on things that can symbolise depression or anxiety and one thing that symbolises depression is a semicolon. Semicolons represent a pause in a sentence and when used a symbolisation it represents a pause in life but continuation. The film like I said would go into why he feels that way, but I also enjoy when characters overcome their low moments, so I think it would be suiting for my character to have some semicolon symbolism about him.To incorporate this into my character I would like to try and have my main character talking, like in the opening of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I would add him get cut off by a parent or a friend as he is writing a sentence using a semicolon or I would have him talk in sentences using lots of semicolons.

Another object or animal I found while doing research was butterflies. Butterflies can represent the pain of emerging from darkness but the transformation and healing that comes after. I think I can incorporate this by showing paper diy creations of butterflies around his room and have his favorite bug or animal obviously be a butterfly. 

References

Nurture Your Nature. (2025, June). The Powerful Meaning Behind Semicolon Tattoos. Nurture Your Nature. https://nurtureyournaturepc.com/latest-news/the-powerful-meaning-behind-semicolon-tattoos/

General idea and major inspo

 Over these past 3 weeks I was able to create a general idea of what I want my opening to be centered around, although it's lacking in some areas but I think that kinda works since it will just be an opening, therefore plot holes are to be expected.

General idea

As I stated in previous posts, I want the main character of my opening to suffer with some sort of mental illness. I decided that I want him to have depression and anxiety. I want my film opening to convey how he feels but lack why he feels that way. Therefore I want the character's feelings to be the main plot behind my opening and then the film would hypothetically go into why he feels that way. 

major inspiration

One of my biggest inspiration behind this project has to go to Perks of Being a Wallflower. I love the opening and I love the film. I would like to take inspiration from their credit scene and some other scenes throughout the film to get an idea of how I can convey the main character's feelings.

Another film that I am inspired by is Manchester by the Sea. I also enjoy how they convey multiple characters' feelings really well. I plan on studying how they go about having the audience feel for the characters and trying to implement what I learn into my own opening.

Group meeting

 Last class we had a group meeting which pretty much means we would get into groups and give our peers insight on what we think of their idea and any recommendations or constructive criticism we might have for them. I was put into a group with 6 other students named Cristina, Benjamin, Noah, Emily, Clara, and Juan.

Notes about their ideas

• benjamin’s opening
• Thriller idea that starts with a guy walking in a park and there is a phone on a bench that is being called
• social realism idea - i think it's a good idea
• He doesn’t have any idea on what to do after the phone rings in his opening - I think he could do a transition to the character in his house and be able to continue from there.
• He doesn’t really enjoy his social realism idea however I told him it might be better to use than the thriller idea
• noah’s opening
• drama film about a kid with a bad background who is quite the delinquent, he plans on opening with the kid smoking a cigarette but cannot have an underage actor smoke a cigarette
• I gave suggestions of how to film his cigarette scene, he wants to show a kid smoking, I said to include an ashtray and others said to include a cigarette being put out and I liked that idea as well.
• Another suggestion I gave was the setting taking place in a poorly maintained parking lot since he wants the kid to be from a bad background and there isn’t many bad neighborhoods where he can record safely nearby.
• juan 
• He wants to do a sci-fi idea where a scientist has glasses that malfunction and he sees into the future for 5 days and he ends up seeing his death
• I asked him how he intends to transition him putting his glasses on to him seeing his death and he said he wanted to do an idea like coherence
• besides his idea with transitioning and his general idea i did not have much more input for him
• emily
• She wants to do a thriller idea in a car driving scene where the driver's phone keeps ringing and he turns it over and ignores it and the girl he is driving with asks him about it and he can't tell her who it is
• our group told her that he idea might not meet the required time and we were giving her some ideas to extend it
• I gave her an idea on how to extend the time of her scene as well as incorporate her credits while slowly introducing the opening

suggestions for my opening

My idea was about a teenager dealing with depression and other mental health issues and I told them that I was struggling how to record a scene where the character's friends are leaving and he is inside his house. I wanted some input on how I could go about recording it while trying to capture the lighting behind each character. My group told me I could make the depression stem from past issues such as loss of a loved one or harmful parents. I think I might go with this idea to try and give my character as much depth as possible to really develop him. I think this idea could work well if i have some scenes where he remembers his past and it causes him distress.

Color scheme research

I plan to use lighting as a significant way of developing my character in my opening. Therefore I did some research on how lighting is used and what colors to go for in my film to develop my character just enough.

The feeling I'm going for

For my opening I'm trying to make the audience feel connected to the main character and feel his emotions. The main emotion im trying to convey will be sadness since that will be how the main character will be feeling. I will primarily use cool colored tones and maybe desaturate them. Cool colored tones can convey sadness as well as hopelessness, then making them desaturated can convey the feeling of confusion and the feeling of being lost. 

There are three colors I'm going to stick with, that is blue, purple, and black. I will be using a shade of these colors and other colors will probably be used but majority of the opening will contain these colors somewhere. 

The color blue

- Blue can sometimes signify cleanliness and organization, however it can also convey the feeling of being depressed. I'm going to mix a deep blue to signify the character's sadness along with a desaturated blue and black in some scenes. The reason I'm mixing desaturated blue is to create emotional depth during certain moments, however I feel the use of black along with blue can also create a similar feeling since black can signify unhappiness or emptiness.

- Another way I plan on using blue is to contrast other colors such as orange. Blue and orange are on opposite ends of the color wheel and if put together in one scene they can convey inner conflict and feelings between multiple characters. For my opening I plan on using orange to represent how my main character feels towards others and blue to represent how he feels internally.

                                             The color blue to represent the character sadness

The color purple

- Purple is a mix of blue and red. The reason I point this out is because blue and red both can give off two opposing feelings, for example, red can give off the feeling of aggression and energy, meanwhile blue can give off the feeling of tranquility and depression. Thus a mix of the two, purple, can represent confusion and inner conflict.

- I plan on using purple to represent the conflicting emotions that my character is feeling, I think pairing purple with blue could also work well since blue can represent the strong feeling of sadness and purple represents his feeling of loss and confusion.

                                             The color purple used for a "lost" soul

The color black

- While I researched I didn't find anything that stated what I was thinking, black can represent the feeling of not belonging, however I thought it would be cool if the reason that is was because black isn't necessarily a color and is technically a shade, therefore it being called a color is technically incorrect, thus it doesn't really belong when grouped with actual colors. I don't think this would work well if I used it but it's just some food for thought.

- Black is often used to invoke the feeling of sadness, unhappiness, or create depth. Therefore I intend to use it only with other colors for the sole purpose of creating depth in scenes. 

                                              black used to create depth and represent sadness

References

Fusco, J., & Hellerman, J. (2023, August 30). The Psychology of Color in Film (with examples). Nofilmschool.com. https://nofilmschool.com/color-psychology-in-film#

Koby-Reddy, H. (2023, May 23). Psychology Of The Color Purple And What It Means For Your Business. FatRabbit Creative. https://www.fatrabbitcreative.com/psychology-of-the-color-purple-and-what-it-means-for-your-business/

Wells, C. (2024, April 3). Mastering the Art of Emotional Impact with Colour in Film. Lwks.com. https://lwks.com/blog/mastering-the-art-of-emotional-impact-with-colour-in-film