A Level Project

Website: http://juxshortfilm.weebly.com/

Festival Card:

Short Film: https://youtu.be/JBoRTdiMysI

Creative Critical Reflection

Final Thoughts

I'm going to be honest: I wish I would've shot earlier.

Had I done this, than the short wouldn't have came out differently than expected. As you have already read, my friends backed out on their parts last minute and because of this, I had to rewrite half of the short. It doesn't hold the same message I originally had for it and it's for the worse. Had I got them to do it two weeks ago, the project would've came out differently.

However, I am proud of what I did to make up for the short comings of my peers and try to salvage the wrecked ship. Do I think that it was a perfect job? No, hardly anything is. There will be some continuity errors and some technical difficulties, but this was my best so be it.

This does give me pause though. If this is my best, than can I pursue this as a reality? Is it worth it, or am I barking up the wrong tree. Should I reconsider my life choices? I'm not sure if I can handle this type of work. I am not sure if I have the skill to do so. Some pretty shots here and there, but I don't think I can cohesively create a story. Time will tell.

Fin

Well, I'm officially done filming and three-fourths of the way done through editing. Where's the confetti?

Filmmaking, from what I've heard and experienced, is a pain in the butt. Things don't always go your way and one must compromise and find the next best way to do it. And really good things can come out of this. For example, there are some shots I wouldn't have gotten to shoot had my friends not dropped out. The shots I do get look great.

Is the story still the same? No.

Is it better or worse? TBD.

But I'm very happy doing this. Per my previous post (which I wrote on Thursday, published Friday), I was sick and tired of this project. I wanted it to be done with. When I shot my final scene, I was sad. I really enjoy filming, writing, and improvising on the spot. I don't even want other people to see it, not because I think it's a flaming dumpster fire (that's for you to decide), but because I don't want to hear other people's opinions. Not that I find their opinions worthless, but I'm going to be proud of the final product regardless of others' opinions.

So to celebrate the final shooting of the short, here's a funny clip.

Why do We Trust Others?

I am not in the greatest of moods at the moment. My ""buddies" who were suppose to help me in my last scene have backed out. Now, They were the last scene I needed to shoot, so one can imagine I am very angry. However, as the professional I am, I have decided to re-write their whole section. The reason why Im not asking someone to take their places is because there are no one who can improve the way they can and there aren't a lot of people left in town.

So, instead of having another conversation with a bunch of stoners, I figured to take inspiration from real life and have them bail on James. He "talks" to them on the phone and at the last minute, they bail on him to babysit his brother and his friend (by the way, really happening). When he talks to them on the phone, he will be talking essentially what he says in the original conversation, disregarding the seriousness of the energy crisis. It ends with him watching TV with the kids as the power goes off.

This brings me back to the title: "Why do We Trust Others?" While this has little to do with the project, I feel that I put way too much stock into what people say compared to what they do. It's very hard to find someone who actually says what they plan on doing. People do what they want to do, disregarding what they said they would do and other people's dependency on them.

I guess this is a life lesson: to never put your eggs into one basket, or never to trust others with your project on the line.

New Title

After much thought and consideration, I realized I need a new title. In the grand scheme of things, it won't make much of a difference, but to me it will.

Plurality means the fact or state of being plural/multiple.  It could apply to the contradictions of James, yet when I tried to explain it to my group last week they were a bit confused. Maybe because the other definition of plurality means he number of votes cast for a candidate who receives more than any other but does not receive an absolute majority. Damn you, US Gov.

So the new title will be.....

Jux

Short for Juxtaposition. Juxtaposition means the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. I feel that it makes much more sense considering the main point of the piece. It's about two things (two conversations) being seen (on screen) or placed (in the structure) close together with contrasting effect (James' multiple viewpoints). 

I hope it's not too late to do this, but I've already done it, so I really don't care. 

First Scene!

Today, I shot my first scene of Jux. It is intended to be a quick, time-lapsing scene, where James is cutting up weed and rolling joints for his friends. Everything will be fast moving, quick cuts until the joint is lit up, and everything goes into slow motion.

(By the way, I'm not using real weed. I'd figure that to be illegal.)

Oregano was chosen because it's the closest thing at the grocery store to resemble marijuana. When I asked my mom what was the produce that looked like weed, in a snap call she said oregano, which found a bit odd.

As seen above, this will be the overall look of the first bit. 

I also wonder what noise should be playing over it, as I can't use licensed music and it would be flat out wrong to do the scene without some music. Maybe I can make something off my piano. 

Quick Update:

Excited to continue this week to finish the rest of the project. Tomorrow I will be shooting both the Gina scenes and the outside alone scenes. The Mighty scenes are delayed until further into the week, as one of my "actors" are going out of town until Friday. Cutting a bit close, huh?

Color Wheel

I find color to be a subtle, yet important aspect of mise-en-scene. I once read that Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan had his characters wear certain colors to represent what role they played in the show. For example, Marie is always wearing purple or shades of purple, as are the rest of the nurses. Hank and Gomez wear orange to represent them as law enforcement officers.

So color, I feel, can be part of the character. According to the color wheel below, reds and oranges are considered more active and passionate colors, compared to the blues and purples. I feel this can be utilized in the short. James, I envisioned, could wear red in his conversations with Gina to symbolize the passion and fiery energy and wear blue with the "Mighty's" to symbolize his laid back approach. When he's alone, I was figured out his could wear a neutral color like gray to show that he is in between two extremes. 

Card. Take 2

This past week, we had a quick group meeting in class. At this meeting I felt overwhelmed. Everyone else in the group had started filming and had such great ideas that I felt discouraged to be completely honest. I haven't started anything yet and I have 14 days left to finish the entire project. 14 days. 14.

Positivity is key here.

Anyway, at the meeting, Chris was showing his hand-out card that he designed and I thought it looked extremely good. So I asked him how he made it and he directed me to canva.com. It has made this aspect of the project way easier than expected. At first, I thought I would have to photoshop everything and I would have to learn that, but Canva comes with templates on how to make the cards.

In a minute I found the perfect template for the card: It's three pictures divided horizontally. For the final product, each photo will be from a different segment of the short. I don't know if I want to make them match to create a full image because then I'd feel I would be copying Moonlight.

 

And there is no way I can come even close to that. I mean, it's one of the most perfect posters I've ever seen. It's a piece of art on its self.

Although there will be some tinkering, I feel I have a solid knowing on what I'm doing on this aspect of the project. 

How to Make Smoke

Ok. So, I've made some adjustments to the script and I think it'll benefit the story. So the "Mighty's" are now are going to be stoners who are discussing random things, including starting a "non-profit". I feel it would be simplier for the audience to understand the characters, instead of them being just weird kids. Plus, it makes a lot more sense of why they are talking about jiberish.

This gives me a new set of problems, as now I need smoke and smoking in a car. There are multiple ways one could do this:
1) Have them smoke real pot....

I'm just kidding, but it would be funny though. A serious nightmare because, you know, they're high.

2) Dry ice. Dry ice is easily attainable and would be easy to use. However, it would look more like fog than exhale.

3) Herbal cigarettes. Herbal cigarettes are what Mad Men used to prevent the actors from smoking real cigarettes and there are models that don't look like real cigarettes, but joints. They're on sale on Amazon and seems like a safe option as they are both nicotine and tobacco free.


I'm going to go through all the options, options two and three and see what will be best for the actors and the short.