My Film Opening

 And this, dear viewer, is where we part ways. I will leave my project for you here, and disappear into the wild cosmos of the internet. Farewell, and enjoy!

Click here for finished project!

Remnants of my Creative Critical Reflection

 As promised, here are the scripts for what was to be my CCR projects:

CCR 1: Parody of YouTuber Q&A Specials

“Hello, my darlings! Welcome back to channel, or if you’re new here, my name is BloodForThought! As promised, since we just reached one billion subscribers, I am finally making my Q&A video! Thank you so much everyone for submitting your questions, I sadly won’t be able to get through every single one as there is a billion of you, but I will do my best! Now, just sit back and relax my billion subscriber special Q&A!”

She leans in close to the camera. “Oh, and don’t question why I’m under my brother’s desk. My room is an absolute mess right now, and I’m sure y’all wouldn’t want to see that.”

The camera cuts. She seems to be reading from her phone. “Hey, Gail! I really enjoy your channel, and had some questions about your most recent video! I was curious as to how it used or challenged conventions, and how it represents social groups or issues. Thank you so much for the question, ILovePedroPascal28!

“This question is about my move recent video project, a film called ‘Two Years After’! It’s one of my best yet, and if you haven’t checked it out, I definitely implore you to do so. My goal with the film was to represent modern teenage issues in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. In my personal experience, going strictly online due to the virus completely destroyed my study habits. Academic integrity was hard to achieve, and when I tell you I was used to turning in things late…

“I’m not the only one who suffered from these issues. More kids failed classes in the 2021-2022 school year compared to ever before, and that’s because several students around the world found it difficult to adjust back to a regular in-person class after a year and a half of strictly online learning. My goal with this film was to highlight these issues found in modern teenagers, and rather than seemingly bash them for struggling to assimilate with school, as other film properties aim to do with their portrayal of teens, I wanted to empathise with them. Showed them that it’s okay to fail, and to use it as a learning experience.”

The camera cuts to a new shot. She reads from her phone again. “What’s popping, Gail. I was a pretty casual viewer of yours before the release of your latest video, and now I’m a super fan. I wanted to know: how does your film engage with audiences, and how else did you distribute it? Glad you’ve decided to jump into my rabbit hole, xXHarbringer_Of_DoomXx. Thanks for your question!

“This question is also about my most recent video! My main audience for this film was also the group I was aiming to accurately portray; teenagers! It’s been common knowledge for quite a while that the old white Hollywood producers simply do not know how to write teens, and often massively drop the ball when trying to do so. Teens across multiple generations have been aggravated by this, and so my goal with engaging with an audience that has been disappointed time and time again is to ensure them that this is the representation their looking for, and comes from actual experiences rather than generalised stereotypes.

“My main way to distribute it was, of course, here on YouTube! Nearly every teen in the world uses YouTube on a regular basis, so it’d obviously be the most optimal way to distribute my film. Something more local, however, is that I submitted ‘Two Years After’ to a local art cinema that I just adore. They were having independent film showings, so I submitted by film and they agreed to show it! It’s the Coral Gable Arts Cinema, go check it out if you can!

“I also submitted my film to some film festivals! The most notable of which is IndieFest, a film festival award competition that aims to promote filmmakers worldwide. Submissions for it hasn’t closed yet, so I can’t tell you if I’ve won anything or not, but lets hope I do!”

CCR 2: Parody of Popular SCP YouTuber "TheVolgun" (and SCP as a whole)

Item #: SCP-250705

Level 1: Unrestricted

Containment Class: Safe

Disruption Class: Vlam

Risk Class: Warning

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-250705 is kept in an air-tight glass box attached to a steel pillar within a concrete containment cell that is 3.6m x 4.2m x 2.4m in proportions. The glass box locked with a welded padlock, and the key has been melted down and thoroughly destroyed. 

The creator of SCP-250705, Abigail Shankles, has been recovered and classified as SCP-250705-1. She is kept in a comfortable holding free to the subject’s desired customisation, and schedules for weekly physicals to document possible growth of infection via contact with SCP-250705.

Description: SCP-250705 is an Apple MacBook Air bought in June of 2020. Stickers pertaining to popular properties and content creators (i.e. Demon Slayer, Resident Evil, GoodTimesWithScar, etc.) are decorated on the back of the laptop. The laptop was in consistent use for three years up until the first recorded incident of its anomalous activity. Whether the laptop harboured anomalous propertied beforehand is unknown. 

The first cited incident occurred on April 1, 2023, in which SCP-250705-1 was using SCP-250705 for the production of a student project. SCP-250705-1 claims to retain little to no memory of the incident beyond the “blazing heat of it all”. SCP-250705-1 promptly disappeared before being recovered by MTF Epsilon-6 a week after her disappearance. 

SCP-250705 was promptly contained, as was SCP-250705-1. Efforts are being made to understand what happened to cause SCP-250705’s initial anomalous outburst. See Addendum 1 for more information.

Addendum 1

The following interview was conducted three days after the containment of SCP-250705 and SCP-250705-1, aiming to learn more about SCP-250705’s first recorded burst in anomalous activity. Note that SCP-250705-1’s government name will be used to ensure the comfort of the subject. 

Interviewer: Dr. Elaine Roberts

Interviewee: SCP-250705-1

_____________________________________________________________

[BEGIN LOG]

Dr. Roberts: Good afternoon, Abigail. My name is Dr. Roberts, I’ll be the one taking care of you for the duration of your stay with us. Is there anything I can get you? Some water maybe?

SCP-250705-1: No thanks, I’m good. 

Dr. Roberts: Alright, let’s get started then. What was this project of yours for and about?

SCP-250705-1: It was a project for my AICE Media Studies class—AICE basically being another version of AP classes. It was about a girl named Joan struggling with her procrastination habits.

Dr. Roberts: Interesting…so this was purely for school?

SCP-250705-1: Yes, it was. I promise I didn’t mean to do anything worng—

Dr. Roberts: It’s alright, Abigail. You didn’t know what you were doing. Now, what technologies did you use? Software, hardware, online, the such. 

SCP-250705-1: Well…for hardware I bought a tripod. There’s also a lamp in my room designed like an old studio light used in movies. I used that to light most of my scenes. For software, I used Adobe Premiere to edit everything, and Google Docs to plan out everything. Uhm…oh! I used a service called WriterDuet to write my film’s script. For online services, I had to upkeep an online blog using Google’s Blogger. It could be frustrating at times, but honestly I enjoyed using it. 

Dr. Roberts: (writing everything down) How would you scale your skills with these services? Did you grow any, or did you get worse?

SCP-250705-1: (taken aback) That’s…an interesting question. Well, I’d say I definitely grew over the course of the project. I got a lot better at navigating and properly using Adobe, and I got more practise with writing scripts. By the time production for my project wrapped up, I felt much more equipped to handle projects in the same vein afterwards. 

[DATA EXPUNGED. POSSIBLE COGNITOHAZARD]

[END LOG]

Note by attending researcher, Dr. Roberts: It appears her memory has thoroughly been wiped due to the cognitohazard variable. Efforts to recover any memories will be conducted. 

Bonus of CCR 2! Here is a photo I took of a makeshift desk set-up. Varying pictures from my completed film opening would have appeared on the green screen, and a slow text crawl would've appeared on the right side of the screen.

Makeshift desk set-up for Dr. Roberts

Again, I cannot apologise enough for what happened to my CCRs. I will take from this experience and learn in hopes of never repeating such a fatal mistake again. 

And so as the ride comes to a stop...

 Finally, we have reached the end.  This project comes to a close, and now I shall take the time to reflect on this rather rocky experience.  I will say, I had some fun creating this project. Both of the initial concepts I created for the projects were doable and just about perfect, in my opinion. Of course, the later of which ("Two Years After") just happened to be on my good side a little bit more. I made the switch because I knew it'd be easier to pull off, and I don't regret it one bit.

However, some problems I had was that I stayed in the pre-production stage for far too long. With such a simple concept for a film, pre-production didn't need to be as long as it was. The truth is...I was procrastinating. I couldn't get over the mental block in my head keeping me from filming, but once I did it was a piece of cake.

Filming itself was rather fun. I actually ended up with an abundance of takes and different shots to choose from. Sadly, that means that some sacrifices had to be made. The written segment where Joan and Gráinne talk as Joan plays Resident Evil 2: Remake had to be majorly cut as there simply was not enough time for the entire clip to be played unedited. 

A recent screenshot of me editing the film opening

However, I ran into a major problem just as I was beginning to near the end; for some bizarre reason, both of my CCR projects were wiped from Premiere. I have absolutely no idea how this happened, and am quite literally in shock over it. I know this will impact my grade immensely, and I take full responsibility for it. I would simply start over, yet time has run out for me. I will deal with the consequences, whether that means failing this grade or even the entire class. Even though Adobe made the buffer, this was my fault and I apologise for disappointing. 

The only file appearing on me for Premiere, my film opening

The film opening, however, is saved! I will be uploading that shortly, and in response to the absence of my CCRs, I will be uploading the scripts I had written out for them as well. I am very proud of the concepts I came up with, even if they weren't truly able to come to fruition.

Thank you for sticking with me through this rollercoaster of a project.

And so it begins...

 Filming has commenced! Today I only focused on filming the small oasis outside my room, though I did run into a little trouble. I couldn't find a way out there, due to the fact that the surrounding foliage of the area was so intensely overgrown. I went outside via my backdoor, and circled around all of the shrubs and palm trees only to find no clear entrance inside. Besides, I'm positive that an iguana lives in the tree (I named it Skeletor), and I'd rather not disrupt it.

Eventually, however, I did find a way outside; I simply crawled out my window. It took a bit, due to the fact that there was a screen door covering half of the window. However, with the power of me just wanting to get this over with and listening to the Notorious B.I.G., I was able to bust down the small insect screen. Fret not, as it is perfectly reattachable, if not possessing a...small dent.

So with this small obstacle overcome, filming has finally started! In honour of this monumental moment, here is a sneak peak of what is to be expected in the final product.

A still shot of the oasis outside my room

Screenplay: Completed

Fantastic news! I have finally finished what is probably my favourite aspect of these projects; writing screenplays! It's not something I've done often, but when the opportunity arrises I can't help but enact. Writing has always been my strong-suit, starting when I was eight and realised that I can write my favourite Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu characters in situations I deem fit. I've honed the skill during the years since, and it has since become one of my favourite pastimes. 

When we were instructed to write a screenplay for our final project for the first semester of this school year, I was ecstatic. I had dabbled in screenplays before, but this would be my first time taking it seriously. I immediately called dibs on working on the screenplay, working hard on it--and you know what? We got a 100 on that aspect of the project! Needless to say, I am confident in my screenplay-writing abilities. 

I decided to write one for this project, as I always planned for some dialogue to show up and I am horrible at coming up with improv dialogue. I needed something to keep my thoughts straight, something I could read off of. So here it is, my screenplay!

Screenshots of my small screenplay, as I couldn't find a  way to insert the actual photos of the PDF file and love making life harder for myself

Details for the montage can be found on my "Storyboards", as I have planned shots drawn out there.

Fresh Character Alert

As previously mentioned my "Titles and Characters" blog post, here is the character my dear friend  has created for this project! I meant to post this absolute ages ago, however I had to wait for my friend to send me her character's design, something she was adamant about doing.

The character's name is Gráinne O'Niell, played by my dear friend Cáragh McGovern. I've known her for the better part of two years now, and when I first mentioned this project to her essentially a month ago, we both discussed the possibilities of her having a cameo. This is a verbal cameo, however, so she won't be visibly appearing. We both would've loved for her to make a physical appearance, alas she lives in England so that is rather impossible at the current time. 

However, Cáragh did sketch out a headshot of what Gráinne would look like. She also described her as a rather accident-prone individual who frequently daydreams. Joan has similar qualities, possessing a creative mind and an active imagination that causes her to daydream. It's no wonder that the two of them became friends. 

A sketch of Gráinne, courtesy of Caragh

A detailed description of Gráinne's involvement in the opening can be found in a post I'll be uploading rather soon!

Non-Frantic New Genre Studies

 I have made the executive decision to further research tropes within dramedies, as even though I am incredibly familiar with the genre, I thought it to be best to do some research to see if there are any tips I can come away with--and boy, did I ever!

Something I was already familiar with is that character is what ultimately drives a dramedy film, as compared to conflict. That much is true for my opening, focusing more on how the internal conflict Joan has to deal with affects her, rather than the conflict itself. I am showcasing this indirectly with the use of character design.

Character design is absolutely pivotal to understanding a character upon their first introduction. One of my favourite examples of this in a live action film is with the main character M. Gustave in "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (dir. Wes Anderson, 2014). Gustave is first introduced with a voice over describing  his nature within the hotel, and little facts about him, such as  how even after he leaves a room the smell of his perfume still lingers. However, it's his design that ultimately speaks more volumes about his character. 

Gustave wears a lavish purple velvet concierge uniform, his hair slicked back and moustache perfectly groomed. The design purely of his hair speaks volumes about how well-groomed he is; above all else, Gustave values a perfect image not only for decency's sake, but for the sake of the hotel's reputation. It even extends to his uniformed outfit; the colours are extravagant and in any other circumstance, it would make his stick out like a sore thumb. Alas, the purple velvet colour scheme is the chosen design for all of the other hotel staffs' uniforms. As well as it establishes his character, it also showcases how he is simply another cog in the system. Gustave is not an important man, and no matter how much love and care he pours into his career, nothing will change that. Unless, of course, someone writes a book on him.

M. Gustave on a train

As my previous blog post outlined, Joan's wardrobe is definitely more relaxed. She wears minimal make-up, if any at all, and doesn't bother to wear anything flashy. She instead settled for a brandless hoodie, and even though her shorts  hold at least some sort of brand in the form of the animated class "Akira" (dir. Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988), it's not exactly something people outside of those who either love anime or animated films in general would recognise. Overall, I aim for Joan's design to be incredibly personal. She cares not for the love or adoration of others, only for herself to feel happy and comfortable in her clothes.

Something else essential not only to dramedites, but good films as a whole, are scripts. Upon reading this StudioBinder article on the essentials to a dramedy film, I have decided to make a short script for my short. Of course, there isn't a lot of dialogue attached to my project, but I feel like creating a script will iron out not only character interactions, but shot details as well. 

To help with the production of this script, I have decided that I will be reading a dramedy script to prepare myself. I will either read the script for "The Banshees of Inisherin" (dir. Martin McDonagh, 2022) or, yet again, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (dir. Wes Anderson, 2014). I promise I have seem more dramedy films outside of "The Grand Budapest Hotel".

Title page for the script for "The Banshees of Inisherin" (dir. Martin McDonagh, 2022)

I will, of course, upload my script here in PDF form as a point of reference for those reading my blogs. 

Slight Change in Character

 After some long and deep consideration, I have decided that changing the aesthetic concept of Joan's character would fit more. You see, my target audience with this opening are teenagers of my age who are just as obsessed with popular internet culture as I am. However, having my character be designed around the grunge aesthetic, as much as I love it, is rather alienating. Grunge just simply as popular as it was back in the 90s, but you know what is? Korean pop music. 

I've decided to incorporate  my love for Korean pop music by changing  the original grunge music jam out scene I had planned. Instead of Joan dancing around to grunge music, I will have her attempting to dance to "TT" by TWICE. Mind you, I will not actually be playing the audio, as the process of gaining permission to use the song within my opening is too complicated.

TWICE in the music video for their  2016 song "TT"

I will instead have Joan dancing to the song and humming the lyrics. She will be watching a dance practise video as well; I am still conflicted on to either have the dancing along with a video implied, or reach out to a content creator to gain permission to use their video instead of an official dance practise. Alas, I will keep you posted on this process.

Due to the change from the grunge aesthetic to a more relatable one, I have changed the planned wardrobe for my character. She will be wearing a more relaxed, loungewear type of outfit--complete with house shoes!

Joan's character design; pale grey hoodie, "Akira" (dir. Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988) branded shorts, and house shoes

Something else added to the character design is a Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh necklace my mother bought me a few months ago. It's something I love greatly, and feel I have a great personal attachment to. I feel as if adding it to the design of Joan's character makes her all the more personal. 

Scheduling

 The time has come, dear blog reader. The day has dawned upon which filming must begin! Well, not literally, mind you. This upcoming week marks the beginning of me filming this dear project. I anticipate beginning on Friday; I would begin Thursday, as that's when Spring Break begins, alas my family is having an outing to watch the highly anticipated "Cocaine Bear" (dir. Elizabeth Banks, 2023). 

Cocaine Bear, the perfect family film

So alas, this upcoming Friday—March 17, 2023—will mark the beginning of my filming process. To expand upon this, I plan on at least getting a head start on editing over the week as well. My family has no plans and since my brother will be visiting our father for the latter half of the break and my mother out of town with her boyfriend, I will be home alone. Still, I wish to at least get a decent ways through editing by March 24, 2023—which is when CAPCOM releases their remake of Resident Evil 4, one of my most anticipated games of the year.

This game is why I wish to at least be relatively finished with my film opening before it's release because I know myself well enough to say that I will be ignoring the project for at least a few days. Of course, once I snap out of my neglectful haze, I will begin work on my CCR, and if it isn't finished already, finish my film opening. All of that is matter of editing, something I actually enjoy very much. Here is a detailed schedule I have put together to keep myself on track:

My schedule I will be strictly sticking by

Contemplating The Eventual CCR

 I would like to create a post speaking of my ideas for this CCR. I will be honest when I say that I am rather worried about this. I consider my creative skills to fall more easily amongst writing compared to  visual media. Writing is definitely something I've spent longer honing my skill in, possessing hundreds of hours on the Google Docs app on my phone. Recording visual media is just something I can't practise too often, since my brother is virtually always home and practically lives in the living room, the only place in my house I like to record in.

Basically, I am scared for the CCR, but I will do my best to approach them with a positive and creative mindset.  The first of these is a direct parody of one of my favourite YouTubers; TheVolgun. However, before  I show you examples of what I want to draw from his content, I have to brief you on what his content surrounds.

The SCP Foundation is a fictional multi-national program that aims to protect the general public from anomalies that range from mildly threatening our basic way of life to destroying the world. In actuality, the Foundation is a multi-cultural internet horror project that started on 4Chan back in 2008 with the post detailing a creature labelled as SCP-173 "The Sculpture", which is still one of the most iconic creations to come from the project. Some other notable creations include SCP-049 "Plague Doctor", SCP-096 "The Shy Guy", and SCP-999 "The Tickle Monster". 

Original photo of SCP-173, as the design has changed in recent years

TheVolgun is a prominent YouTube channel within the SCP community. His content revolves around reading out SCP files under the alias "Dr. Millar". His style is very distinct and high quality compared to those who have similar content, making him stand out. He's personally one of my favourite creators within the SCP sphere, and I'd love to try and replicate his style of content for my CCR. 

Screenshot from TheVolgun's latest video  as of March 5, 2023

For the other media style I'd like to replicate, I aim to make a parody of Late Night talk hosts. This form of media is one that is deeply engrained in my childhood; I remember my mother showing me the latest viral clips from Jimmy Fallon, and carpool karaokes of James Cordon and popular artists before he become widely hated. Because of my experience with Late Night shows, I believe I have all of the knowledge needed to create the perfect parody.

Except, I'd like to add a little twist. You see, there is an already-existing perfect parody; The Eric Andre Show. The show aired on Adult Swim, and has a total of five seasons that can now be viewed on Hulu. Of course, the show is intensely vulgar, and that is an aspect I don't plan to replicate in the slightest. However, the inherent awkwardness and plainly weird jokes are something that I cherish outside of grotesque humour. That is what I wish to replicate more than anything. 

Eric Andre and Hannibal Buress interviewing a grizzly bear

These are my goals with my CCR, as well as the existing properties I wish to parody. 

Half-Baked Convergence

 Let me get this out of the way before I officially start this post; I meant to take notes during this exercise of group criticism, but ended up forgetting that fact halfway through. Due to this, there will be no accompanying media for this post, as I have nought a suitable picture and/or link to fill in extra space. It was a mistake on my end, and one I hope not to repeat for the rest of this blog. 

Now, on February 27, 2023, my media studies class separated into five groups  in order to peer-review the current outlines we have for our project. Initially, this process was rather awkward given that I am not the most skilled when it comes to social interactions (why do you think this project is a one-man effort?). This awkwardness was shared  amongst not only me, but all five of my assigned group. In complete and utter honesty, I don't think we really moved past it. 

I believe by now you have realised that I am rather frustrated with this peer-review exercise.  There wasn't any real critiquing going on, we were all either joking about how stressful writing blogs are when you have no prior experience or saying that we liked each others' ideas. Personally, I wouldn't commemorate it as helpful. The stories the other kids in my group had were good, and I think it's great so many of us decided to stick close to source material we knew. However, details pertaining to the story weren't exactly given; it was just a rundown of what our blogs looked like and what posts we had.

I am fully part of that problem as well. I barely did anything to offer advice beyond saying that the two kids who have so far neglected their blogs should probably get a move on and actually start posting. 

As of now, I am seeking out advice from other sources i.e. friends with creative minds such as my own. I don't want to be told that everything I'm doing is good because I know there will always be an aspect of this project I can improve. I want criticism, I want to be told that what I have could be made better compared to the "I really like your idea!" I heard from everyone in my peer-review group. 

That's all I really have to say about this  experience.  I wish I got more out of it.

Frantic new genre notes

 So, as evident with the change of my opening’s plot, I am having to switch my genre as well. Found footage simply does not work with the new story I have planned. Because of this, I have decided to switch to the dramedy (drama-comedy) genre, a personal favourite of mine. I have seen countless dramedy films before, my favourite of which being “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (dir. Wes Anderson, 2014) and “Jojo Rabbit” (dir. Taika Waititi, 2019). 

For the sake of this genre exploration, however, I decided to watch a film I hadn’t seen before: “Little Miss Sunshine” (dir. Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, 2006). I had heard of it once before because of TikTok. You see, when the recent “The Batman” (dir. Matt Reeves, 2022) came out, Paul Dano found a major boost in his career on the platform. Young teenage girls who watched the film were…attracted his character’s charm (I will admit, I do not see it) and established what became known as “The Dano Nation”. They would watch all of his movies and obsess over every little thing about Paul Dano. Did you know he was in a band? I certainly didn’t before the Dano Nation’s founding. 

It was because of this small TikTok community that I learned about “Little Miss Sunshine”. The film revolves around a girl who wants to participate in a beauty pageant, and rallies her dysfunctional family together in order to drive to and participate in one. The film is absolutely amazing, one of the best I’ve seen in recent memory. Here are my notes on it’s first opening minutes. 

My notes on the opening to “Little Miss Sunshine” where I constantly misspelled pageant

As with “Little Miss Sunshine”, I wish to have my opening be character driven. In a hypothetical scenario, the rest of the film would mainly revolve around Joan and the effects quarantine has had on her life. These opening minutes are essential to understanding her character, as well as her struggle. Because of this, I will be drawing a lot on “Little Miss Sunshine” when it comes to both cinematography notes and character introduction.

Storyboards

 Here are my storyboards! The order of the montage scenes can mostly be rearranged, and I will most likely add more to fill for time. I didn’t draw every single one because I didn’t have enough paper to do so. Hope you enjoy my minuscule drawings!

A small collection of my storyboards

Titles and Characters

 Naming is a big task. I should know, I have had the pleasure of naming a lot of different things in my life, ranging from simple objects to characters I hold near and dear to my heart. In fact, when I was younger, I used to claim it was my favourite pastime. I would cycle through characters faster than ever, all for the sole purpose of creating something new and being able to name it. 

An old tactic of mine was to hyperfixate on a name, in which a random name would pop into my head one day and I’d repeat it for months upon months. This mostly generated some great results, such as Willow, Scarlett, and Minerva. It also held some…questionable results, with names like Molly and Milennius (don’t ask how that happened, I don’t know). Recently, however, I have been blessed with a name for the first time what feels like years: Joan. 

Therefore, my main character’s name will be Joan, but I believe I already told you that. Joan will be played by me, and wear more grunge-style clothing, as well as multiple jewellery accessories. She is an artistic kid, who prefers to spend her time writing or drawing. When she isn’t exercising her artistic endeavours, she’s actively consuming artistic media by watching films/tv shows, playing video games, or reading books. She is very expressive, but has lately pulled back in that side of her due to

constantly being down because of her destructive procrastination habits. 

A quick sketch I made of Joan

On the other hand, we have the name of my opening. I decided to dig more into my experiences with intense procrastination, and draw upon what stimulated the worse of my destructive habits. COVID was catastrophic for everyone, but when it came to my personal experience with the virus and quarantine, it practically destroyed my study habits. I’ve been able to rekindle some of them now, but most remain lost in the depths of COVID’s senseless nihilism. 

Since I’m mainly drawing upon post-quarantine experiences for this opening, I’ve decided to name it “Two Years After”. The title details how this takes place in 2022, two years after the initial start of quarantine. 

There is one or two more planned characters that will be appearing vocally (not physically) in my opening, but I’m leaving their creation to the people who play them. One of my friend’s strives in character creation, having helped me with detailing characters for a personal film project once before, so I believe they’d want to be able to come up with their own character. The other person, on the other hand, is just a mom character played by my mom. Nothing really special about that. 

And here is where I lay out my heart for you, pulsing and bleeding

 I’m going to be brutally honest with you. I practically despise the story I already have conjured up and planned out. It mainly draws inspiration from a book I haven’t finished reading, which is a problem of grand proportions when it comes to discussing parallel themes. It falls along the found footage genre of film, something that is notoriously known for it’s gritty realism and horror, and I simply don’t like conveying strict realism. I always have some fantastical element that is rather strong in its presentation in the story. To put it bluntly, I can’t do realism. And, of course. there was the problem with the credits too. 

However, all of these pale in comparison the the greatest roadblock in my journey with this project. I just don’t like it. It feels pretentious, like something I would’ve written when I was 15, obsessed with the existential horrors of the SCP Foundation and pouring my heart and soul into supporting the content creators of the Dream SMP. Needless to say, I don’t like looking back on this point in my life. The drama pertaining to my father was just beginning to bubble, all thanks to my grand stupidity, and I was battling with a constant state of depression. A lot of my art at that time reflected that, horror pieces surrounding insanity and eldritch occurrences out of the characters’ control.

I want to branch out of that writing style—I have to branch out of it, which is why I am going to be abandoning my former story idea. This time, it revolved around something that is still personal to me, but in a much more comedic and frustrating way compared to hopelessness depression. Bonus is I don’t have to worry about mis-placed credits anymore.

It will revolve around a young girl named Joan. She’s someone who, despite all of her best efforts, struggles immensely with procrastination (go figure, I’m writing this at practically 1am). She struggles with getting even the simplest homework assignments done, constantly battling with the urges to pursue what she prefers to be doing (i.e. playing video games, drawing, writing, etc.) and what she should be doing. The opening will portray this with the use of heavy editing and stylisation. 

Needless to say, I am much more excited with this story to follow compared to my last one. It feels fresh, like something I’ve never really tapped into before. I cannot wait to begin my pre-production as of tomorrow. You’ll be getting my story boards and rough outline soon, as well as character and setting details. In fact, here is a teaser. 

A small oasis outside the window in my room

Okay, fine, I’ll talk about the story now

 I already know how I want to format this. Taking everything I have learned from watching and reading similar projects, I will act on this:

- An opening establishing the story (The Blair Witch Project, Marble Hornets “Introduction”)

- Shots showcasing random events that will happen later in the movie (House of Leaves Chapter One “Exploration #4”)

- Intercut with the landscape/story shots is the credits in Times New Roman against a black background 

- The black backdrop eventually fades into a coherent image that starts the film (not concrete, still workshopping)

This is main layout of how my opening will work. I need to focus on balancing character and tone, both of which I have a solid idea of. For tone, I’m obviously going for something bleak and unnatural, following alongside all three pieces I’m drawing inspiration from. For characters, I want to focus on a sibling dynamic. 

Siblings is something I am inherently familiar with, having grown up with a brother rather close in age to me (a year and a half apart). The story will focus on how their relationship deteriorates as their single mother leaves for a week during summer break for a wedding, leaving something sinister in her wake. 

I want to film this in my home, of course. I feel like having that familiar environment will make it all the more familiar. I also plan to have my brother act alongside me, as I will be playing the only other character in the opening. This leaves the question of who will record; that, I hope, my mother will help out with. 

I will come up with the storyboards and overall story outline, and post them here next week. I am hesitant to go any further in the details of the story, as I still don’t have all the details fleshed out. You will just have to trust me. 

A very trust-worthy face that happens to be very excited for this project

Revisiting an Old Friend

 Not literally, mind you. I have no old friends to speak of. "Marble Hornets" is my friend in the same way my favourite YouTuber is; parasocially! I guess I should introduce the series first because unlike "The Blair Witch Project", this rather self-contained internet horror ARG was not exactly an international phenomenon. 

"Marble Hornets" revolves around a man named Jay, who after years of not having any contact with an old college friend named Alex Kralie, rediscovers old video tapes taking place during the filming of a student project (ironic, really). Throughout the course of watching these tapes, Jay begins to notice something strange changing in Alex's behaviour. He documents the alien tapes on YouTube, thus beginning the series. 

“Entry #1” from YouTube horror ARG “Marble Hornets”

I first watched this series when I was in seventh grade and around twelve years old.  I also happened to be deeply interested in games such as "Five Nights at Freddy's"  and "Bendy and the Ink Machine", so going for classic ARGs was the obvious next step in my progression within the horror genre. I still remember my first time watching this series, how utterly entranced I was and being unable to discern if the story playing out in front of my eyes was real or not. 

This is my first time in recent memory where I’ve begun to rewatch the series. It’s been in my subconscious for months at this point, as a Twitch streamer I occasionally watch recently watched the series on stream. I tuned in to a couple of those streams, but I don’t count them as a true rewatch. This is my first time rewatching the series, alone and with no one else around. Here are my notes on “Introduction” and “Entry #1”: 

My notes on the first two videos listed on the “Marble Hornets” YouTube Channel, I actually wrote on the whole page this time yippee

If anything, watching “Introduction” and rewatching “Entry #1” has taught me what not to do when it comes to my opening. I need to establish story and tone, instead of relying on only one or the other to do the heavy lifting. 

I should say that characters is something else “Marble Hornets” strives at, as I still remember the chill personality of Brian and realist traits of Tim years later. It will be difficult, however, to establish characters and an intense tone within two minutes, but not exactly possible. I’ll just have to be careful with how I want to convey my story. 

The Biggest Roadblock Yet

 In preparation for this project, I decided to watch the found footage horror movie that started it all; "The Blair Witch Project".  Of course, I had heard numbers about the effect of the film. An old friend of mine had an uncle that worked in movie theatres at the time of it's release, and he described the experience as stressful and horrid. I always carried that conversation with me, and after finally getting around to watching "The Blair Witch Project" for the first time, I can see why it was such a big success.

Even by today's standards, there is still nothing quite like it. Maybe it's because of the use of intense improvisation, something that gives the film an intense sense of realism. The closest thing I can compare it to, considering my lack of knowledge within the genre, is "Marble Hornets". Alas, I will not get into my favourite internet horror ARG just yet. I shall save that for a later blog post, one you will be seeing later today. 

However, upon watching "The Blair Witch Project", an issue has cropped up within my own; how do I handle the credits? Part of what makes the film so believable is the lack of opening credits, instead beginning with a statement informing the audience of the backstory concerning the characters and their disappearance before cutting to Heather informing whoever is holding the camera about her documentary. I took notes on this as well, which go more in-depth on my credits crisis.

My notes on "The Blair Witch Project", don't ask why I only wrote on one side of the paper

The sad conclusion is that I will not be able to create such an intense atmosphere, or at least an atmosphere to my liking, if I have to ruin it by telling the audience that this isn't real. There are some ways around this, such as having the film slowly switch from found footage to a professionally-filmed movie the longer it goes on (an idea I had the previous night while trying to come up with a remedy for this situation). The main problem with that is it's a change made throughout the course of an ENTIRE film, not one I can make within a two-minute opening without making it feel rushed. 

Right now, my only option is to include credits, which is something I'm not too excited about. I already have an idea of how to implement this, though it would force me to follow along with "Exploration #4" (see my previous post) as my main source of inspiration for the project. In between the sporadic shots of my opening, I could include the proper credits. It's not the best considering the believable tone I wish to set, but it will have to do.  Who would've thought, sacrificing tone for a good grade. 

Which to choose, which to choose

 This book is interesting,  to say the least.  In my attempt to formulate a cohesive story for my project, I reread the first chapter of this book...again. You see, there is some backstory concerning the relationship I have with "House of Leaves".  When I originally began to read the novel, I had skipped the Introduction assuming it was some sort of drab writing from another accomplished author explaining how wondrous the book is. Then the further I read, I realised just how dense the story really is. I came to the conclusion that I had to start over, both in order to gain the context I know I missed in the Introduction and annotate so I can follow along better. 

Then, this project was announced. Immediately, I knew I wanted to do something following along the horror genre. I also happened to be in the midst of rereading "House of Leaves". I decided then and there that I should do something that draws inspiration from the novel, specifically from the shorts described within the first chapter, "The Five and a Half Minute Hallway" and "Exploration #4". Both, in their own different ways, make for perfect tone-setters and opening scenes for a film. 

So for the third time, I reread the first chapter of "House of Leaves". I took some notes on interesting things I found within the story, and though I initially only planned to do this for my self-imposed assignment, I am going to continue this for the remainder of the book. That is beside the point, however. Here are my notes, most of which taken on a day in which I got 0 hours of sleep due to personal reasons outside of my control. I apologise if they don't make sense. 

My notes on "House of Leaves" Chapter One

Essentially, I have not come to a conclusion on if  I will use "The Five and a Half Minute Hallway" or "Exploration #4" as my main source of inspiration.   Of course, drawing upon "Exploration #4" would make for a more bombastic opening, something so clearly darker and filled with unexplained circumstances. Still, there is something about "The Five and a Half Minute Hallway" that initiates a greater sense of intrigue. 

I am yet to make a decision. Right now, the more likely option seems to be "Exploration #4". Fear not, I will figure it out soon enough. My decision will come as of tomorrow, as first, I believe I should sleep on it.

New Beginnings

The time has finally dawned upon us; a new beginning for this red landscape of genre studies and snapshots of past projects. You knew this was coming, as did I, so I can’t exactly that this is much of a surprise. Nonetheless, I am excited for what this could turn into. Ideas run rampant in the flurry haze of my mind, though there is already one I am clinging to.

Have you ever heard of “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski? It’s a rather interesting book, one I heard of years ago. I had never read a horror novel before, and I still haven’t to this day. “House of Leaves” is my first, and in some ways I regret it. The bar for horror novels has now been set incredulously high, not even solely because of how masterfully written such a piece is, but also because of it’s creativity. It was a very nostalgic feel, which isn’t exactly the safest feeling when reading this book. It makes you feel like this has happened before.

My copy of “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski

I’ve decided to draw inspiration from “House of Leaves” and create something that would emulate the fictional home video documentary within the story, “The Navidson Project”. Naturally, this project will be classified within the found footage genre of film. I have never seen a found footage film before, as I was under the premonition that all besides “The Blair Witch Project” were bad. However, I soon came to the dawning realisation that the analogue horror videos on YouTube that I love so dearly count as found footage.

I now have a line-up of films and videos I’ll watch to get a general feel for the genre. This is of course subject to change, as my blind assumption of every found footage movie after “The Blair Witch Project” being terrible is rather unforgiving. I will certainly look into more films that utilise the genre. However, for now, my current list is:

- The Blair Witch Project

- Skinamarink

- Marble Hornets: Season One (to save for time)

- EverymanHybrid (I forget how to spell this)

- The Walten Files (this is definitely more stylistic compared to other entries, but I still believe it counts nonetheless)

- The Mandela Catalogue

- Old Home Recorded Videos