FILMING DAY 1

     IT'S FINALLY HERE! WE'RE FINALLY FILMING TODAY! I've been waiting for this day from the moment I came up with the idea and I can finally turn it into real life today. 

    We finished setting up and then got straight to filming as soon as our actress got to the set (and maybe after eating a pizza since we needed a pizza box for the film). We followed our storyboard to keep track of the shots we wanted and in what order. 

    We managed to film every shot we needed for the part where Layla is in her room. One shot that we struggled with a lot was the one where we show the picture of Layla and Liam (her brother) because we couldn't get the light to look right without it reflecting off the glass, but we managed to get it how we wanted after a lot of trial and error with our phone flash lights. Here's how it came out: 

I was overall really proud of this specific shot we got of Layla drinking: 

Here's a time lapse video of us working on a part of the filming process: 

    Overall, I had so much fun filming this because we managed to laugh and also get the work done and I know that once I start editing it will come out just like I wanted. 

Building the Set!

    We are so close to filming and I'm so excited to finally get the set ready today. We made the decision to film in my sister's room since my room had a lot of me things that would be more work taking them off. I wish I had taken a picture of the room before but I realized when I was already 10 minutes into messing up the room. I started setting up the room on the night before filming since I knew we would have a little more time to set up the day of filming because our main actress could only get here until later in the day. I started with the light and set it up where I thought would be best and then I started getting some clothes to put on the floor, I got my old suitcase record player, I started putting tissues everywhere, I got my guitar, my old trophies and some makeup. I undid and messed up the bed and got a dark blanket for it, I switched the desk chair that my sister had that was light grey and white, to my mom's chair that was all black. It started getting late so I decided to leave it and finish the next day. Here's a time lapse of me organizing it. 

 

    The next day, my partner came to help me finish setting it up and we managed to get more clothes on the floor, along with some dead roses, the picture frame (which is very important to our film) and the pizza box. We played with the lights to see which color would look best and still go with our film and we ended up noticing that they looked different on camera than they did in person so we had to adjust our choice to fit that. Here's a small part of our setting up process (we set up the tripod with the phone but forgot to hit record for like half of it). 

    I'm really excited to get done with the filming and editing so I can see our whole project come to life!

Meet Our Cast!

     We finally were able to finalize our casting! One of the things I struggled with the most when finding our cast was making sure that the person we wanted to play Layla would be available because she has a really busy schedule, but we managed to find a time to film. 

    But here she is! I'm so glad she agreed to be in our film and I know the filming process is going to be very fun with her. 

    For the parents, they don't have much screen time but their dialogue holds much importance to understanding the overall plot. We decided to use my parents since it would be much easier to film since we're already filming at my house. We are planning on having them speak in Spanish with subtitles. 

AUDIO

    For the sounds and audio in our film, we would mostly rely on a song (that we're still trying to find) throughout the scenes where she is in her room as this would have minimal to no dialogue. During this part we would probably need to record some foley sounds for maybe the parents walking around the house, or her setting something down on the counter and the like. Now, for the parts outside of her room, our original plan was to have the parents arguing in their room but we realized that the sound could be muffled because of the door, we still want to try it and see how it comes out but we will most likely have them be in the kitchen so that their dialogue is heard more clearly. 

    For the non-diegetic sounds of our film, such as the background music we'll have from when she's leaving her room until she goes on her bike, I went on the website Pixabay to search for some soft sounds that we could use but I just haven't found one that stands out to me so I'm just gonna have to keep searching for that. I liked the Motivational Background (Corporate City) but it doesnt fit what I'm trying to find. The Cold Sad Pianos could work but I still want to keep looking and see if I can find something else. 

This is another potential one I found:

Lighting For Our Film

    

    For the lighting in our film opening, we want her room to be dimmed with only enough light to see what's happening in her room. Since we will probably film during day time and night time, we would close the curtains of the room to block any light coming in and add some soft lights, like maybe LEDs or string lights. I was talking to my parents about how the lights could work and my mom showed me this lamp she has that can change colors and light up a room. I tried it out in her room and saw all the different colors it has and I think it could be a good option for us, but I would still have to try it in either my room or my sister's room when everything is dark to get  more realistic version of what it would look like. 

    For the parts of the opening that take place outside of her room, we want some natural light coming in. We were thinking filming between golden hour and sunset to get some nice colors in the frame when she's about to walk out her house but we noticed that it would be hard to film in such a small time frame so we talked about it and we come to the decision to find multiple filming days incase we can't get all the shots at that time. For the shots of her getting on her bike outside and leaving the house, we really want the background to show a sunset leaning into night to represent the darkness taking over her. One restriction for this however, is that we cannot control the weather and we just have to hope that on our filming days we will have a nice sunset without too many clouds so it can still be seen. 

Ideas for the Set

    For the set of our film, we are planning on filming at my house. We would redecorate and/or rearrange my room, or we could use my sister's room since she is away in college, it would all depend on which room would fit the scene the best. 

    There are many pros and cons of using either room. My room has the layout that I was picturing when creating the storyboard, I have strip LED lights that can change color which can help us add ambience to the room. However, my sister's room is more plain and easier to move around stuff, which will give us a room in which we could start from scratch and add props and decoration, and also using my sister's room will allow me to still sleep in my room without having the mess we will create. 

    The plan overall is to have a dark aesthetic, with dark ambience, maybe dark bedding, and to use her room as a reflection of who she was, and who she is now. To do that, we would leave traces of her life before, such as pictures of her friends, some of her achievements from her sport, her books that she used to read, and a picture frame of her and her brother, but cover them with the mess that she is now by showing the pictures of her friends falling out, her achievements being covered in dust with clothes or food packages on some of them, her books scattered along the floor, but the picture frame of her brother would be intact, to show how much she still cares. 

   

    She would also have a record player, with some of her old records laying there to show her old personality. We also thought of the possibility of bringing a pet to show that in her mind it's just her and her pet against everything, but I happen to be allergic to all pets so if we do it in my room we would not be able to do this. I went on Pinterest and found these pictures that are kind of what I have in mind with the messy room.

Meet Layla!

    I struggled a lot finding a name for my character because I wanted to find the perfect name that could fit her the best. I looked at many websites that listed many girl names, looked at statistics of most used names, and it took me a whileeee, but I finally came across the name Layla. I thought this name would work because it is derived from Arabic, meaning "dark as night" (Miller, 2025), and we want her character to be darkened by her emotions and grief, so I thought the name would fit her well. Once I came across that name I knew it had to be the one, but I kept on looking to see if anything fit her better but I knew Layla was the best option. 

    The way I see her character is one with a dark aesthetic that reflects the darkness she is feeling inside. She has a deep connection to her brother and it can be seen through her way of being. We're still deciding if we're going to give her a bracelet to symbolize her brother or maybe a necklace. Her personality will show through her clothes, her room, and the way she acts overall. 

    We though of the idea of having her be a past athlete to show her trophies or medals around the room being covered by the darkness of her mess. She would also be into indie type music and she'd be a bookworm. Because of her family conflicts and her internal conflicts, her main way of coping with her grief from her brother would be by drinking, which would slowly start to fade away her real self and who she was before this all happened.  

Miller, S. (2025). 100 Beautiful Girl Names With Unique Meanings. 

      https://www.familyeducation.com/pregnancy/baby-names/100-             beautiful-girl-names

STORYBOARDDD

     Me and my partner have been working on our storyboard these past few days and we finally got it down from where we want it to start to approximately where we want it to end. Here are some pictures of the storyboard we made: 

There might be some changes to the storyboard as we keep going with the development and production of our film so I don’t expect it to stay exactly as it is shown here.

Media Theories

     Recently in class, we diver into more media theories that can be applied to productions, and after looking through all of them and considering my plot, I decided that it could be a good idea to incorporate one the Narrative Codes theory by Roland Barthes, specifically the Hermeneutic or Enigma Code. This code is when a narratve holds information to develop mystery or leave a plot point unexplained. 

    I feel like this could be interesting to use in my film as i could withhold the specific information as to why the younger brother committed suicide to create that plot hole which could leave viewers wondering what truly did happen. 

    My film would also follow Todorov's Narrative Theory of Equilibrium because the audience will be introduced to the main characters and beginning of the story when the film opens. 

So what is my idea??

    The time is finally hereeeee! I will finally give an explanation on my overall idea for my film opening! 

    

    So the overall idea for my coming of age film is a girl who is using substances to cope with the recent death of her little brother, who committed suicide because he felt worthless and invisible everywhere he went. The film starts with the girl in her room and it will most likely show aspects of her childhood in her room being covered by the mess that her mental state has caused. Her room will be a representation of who she was before and who she is now. She then hears her parents arguing (again) and she decides to leave the house, but as she is walking to the door she hears her name being mentioned so she stops and listens to what they’re saying and she hears them arguing about how the dad was never there for the little brother and never made him feel loved which is one of the reasons he is not with them anymore. As she hears this, you see her expression change as she is processing her feelings and she runs out of her house and bikes away from the place that reminds her of her built in best friend that is now gone. 

    This idea started as something that I saw no true potential for, but after thinking about it more and developing the plot and the character and adding the death of the little brother, I am very happy to say that I am extremely excited to see the final result for this film. 

    I have started a storyboard to help me visualize what I want in each shot and I should have that finished very soon! I’ll share it here as soon as I get done with it.

Reflecting on Group Meeting

     So today in class we had our first group meeting! At first I was slightly confused because I thought we were going to be with our partner and one other group and just share ideas and suggestions, but instead everyone got separated from their group and was placed in a group of around 5 people so each person would have a different idea to share. Throughout the whole class I took notes in my laptop of what each person's ideas were and overall suggestions we all made.

    One girl in my group, Ale, was going to do a film under the drama genre and it was based on how girls are wanting to fit the "beauty standard". She wanted to start her film with the last scene of the whole movie and then go back to the beginning, so we all gave her some ideas on how to transition from the end to the beginning so it can flow smoothly.

    The second person to go, Addison, was going to do a psychological thriller and it would show a wife that killed her husband and the opening scene would show her buying supplies to bury him. We helped her develop the end of her scene a little more to make it more psychological to show how the mind of the woman is controlling her every emotion. 

    I went after her but I'll talk about mine towards the end. SO moving on to Renn, it was a western drama in which the stereotype of cowboys always saving the day would be broken, by showing a cowgirls and having her not be sexualized. We came up with ways to help develop that theme of breaking stereotypes throughout the production.

    Last person to go was Vicky, and she was doing a dystopian film in which two best friends live in this world in which every year people get chosen to fight for a power but they don't know that they are fighting for an actual prize. I personally felt like it needed a little more developing so I helped her come up with ideas of how to explain the overall point of the contest without giving it all away in the first two minutes, and we also helped her come up with filming locations that she could use to film a specific part of her film. 

    And finally for my film, I haven't talked about my overall plot idea on here yet but I'll make sure to do that really soon. I won't give it away right now but I will say that they helped me come up with ideas of how to develop my character a little more since I'm doing a coming of age and that's the most important aspect of it. They also helped me come up with names for my characters that fit their description the best and made me realize that I should consider the reason why one of my characters is going to be dead... BUT WE'LL TALK ABOUT THAT LATER.

    Overall, I feel like this group meeting really helped each person gain ideas or suggestions from other people and I will talk to my partner and see what her group recommended and we can combine ideas to create something even better. 

Here's a picture of the notes I took during class: 

What’s My Audience?

     These past few days I’ve been talking with my partner about possible ideas for our film and we stumbled across something we had learned in class, which is that the target audience is always important when developing a product. So we wondered, what is our main target audience?

    So I started doing some research on the target audience so that I could develop my film in a way that is aimed at that specific group of people. I found that the main target audience for coming of age films are teenagers, leaning towards a more female than male audience. Teenagers ages 12-18 are the main targets are they are most likely to relate to the content being shown in the films, such as first love, friendships, family relationships, or just overall pathways to adulthood. They all have common themes and use many mise-en-scene elements to help develop their characters. 

    This research on the target audience will allow me and my partner to be able to come up with ways to make our film aimed at that group of people to help illustrate our genre the best. 

Managing My Time

     One of the greatest challenges that i have noticed with this class is being able to manage my time wisely to be able to dedicate enough time and thought to each part of the project. So for this project, I decided it would be really helpful if I made a schedule for myself to have a goal fo when I should have each thing done. this will help me not procrastinate and will allow me to spend as much time as i can developing each aspect of this project to make it come together as a whole. 

    For this project, I need to find time to research, produce the film, edit the film, revise it, and work on the critical creative reflection. So here's the schedule that me and my partner agreed upon: 

WEEK 1 (1/29-2/2)

• Research
• Brainstorm ideas for plot

WEEK 2 (2/3-2/9)

• Research
• Develop the plot more
• Start thinking about script

WEEK 3 (2/10-2/16)

• Research
• Complete storyboard
• Find filming locations
• Start casting process

WEEK 4 (2/17-2/23)

• Develop characters (mood boards?)
• Research mise-en-scene
• Maybe start filming?

WEEK 5 (2/24-3/2)

• Filming
• Work on sounds (foley might be needed)

WEEK 6 (3/3-3/9)

• Finish filming if more time needed
• Start editing (2 versions to choose the best one)
• Revise which one is best
• Research for creative critical reflection

WEEK 7 (3/19-3/25)

• Edit edit edit
• Revise revise
• Work on creative critical reflection (CCR)

WEEK 8 (3/17-3/25)

• Finish CCR 
• In case there are any delays or difficulties

    I am expecting some changes within the schedule because it's inevitable to have some difficulties along the way but i will try to stick to it as best as i can. I know this schedule is really going to help me organize my time for this project in a more efficient way. Can't wait to begin the process of bringing this production to life!

What Credits Do I Need?

    These past few days, I started thinking about the credits I’m gonna need to include in my film because I had no idea how many or which ones are most commonly included. This led me to watching some examples from other coming of age films that could inspire my credit sequences. 

    The first film credit sequences I watched were the ones of the film Lady Bird. It starts with “A24 AND IAC FILMS PRESENT” which I have seen that is a very common start for coming of age films. Then, the title of the film is shown in fulls creen and then moves on to show the name of the cast members consecutively while shots are being displayed on screen. It continues to show who casted, music supervisors, music by, costume designer, edited by, production designer, director of photography, co producers, executive producer, produced by, and written and directed by. This shows a big list of credits that are included in films which I will need to take into account when creating my list. 

    The second film was The Breakfast Club and the credit sequence included of Universal Pictures, followed by an A&M Films Channel Production, A John Hughes Film, and the title of the film, followed by the cast shown in alphabetical order, casting by, costume designer, production supervisor, executive producers, music composed and supervised by, edited by, production designer, director of photography, co-produced by, produced by, and written and directed by. This list is similar to the last one I watched apart from the fact that it was all shown on a black screen instead of showing the start of the movie, but this could be because it is an older movie.

    The last movie opening credit sequences are for the film Juno. This sequence begins with Fox Searchlight Pictures presents, a Mandate Pictures, Mr. Mudd Production, a Jason Reitman film, and then display the film title. It the begins to show the names of the cast members, casting by, costume designer, music by, songs by, music supervisors, co-producers, film editor, production designer, director of photography, executive producers, produced by, written by, and directed by. Unlike The Breakfast Club, this film shows the credit while there are some shots being shown with an artistic twist to the graphics instead of just a plain white screen.

    Overall, the credits listed in all three movies are basically all the same. This really helped me have a clear idea of what I need to include in my film credit sequence and I will definitely use what I learned today as a form of inspiration. 

Finally decided on a genre!

    Me and my partner have finallyyyy decided between our two options of genre. We were stuck between mystery and coming of age but we decided to stick with coming of age as we felt we would be better able to develop the opening with a focus on the character as a whole, which is what coming of age is all about.

    So, to get started with the brainstorming and keep the creativity flowing, I have started to look at inspiration by watching film openings of other coming of age films. 

    The opening scene of the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower clearly introduces the main character that is going to be developed throughout the film. It starts with shots moving through a tunnel, like if it was in a car, but the car isn't shown. The moving through the tunnel and finally coming out of it can represent a journey that the character will go through. While the shots are moving, the credits are seen spread out throughout the shots. This is something i would like to include in my film as I feel like it is common for many films to do this and it would help the beginning of my film to flow better. After those shots, it moves to a shot of Charlie (the main character) sitting writing on his desk. The voiceover here helps us understand the character and what his journey may look like throughout the film as he is starting high school. 

    The second example of a coming of age film opening that i watched for ideas and inspiration was Mean Girls. Similarly to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, it started with the name of the production companies and then the title of the film, followed by the first shots. Throughout the first scene, there are multiple times that a voiceover is heard to help describe Cady's (the main character) thoughts of this new and strange place. It can be seen that she is used to a much different environment and this helps develop the character as we start to wonder if shes going to diverge from everyone else and keep who she's been all her life, or if she will convergence and start being like everyone around her. This will show the character development that is essential for a coming of age film. 

    Lastly, I watched the opening scene of a film inspired by a book that I read in 8th grade for English class: The Outsiders. This film is much older than the last two being that it was released in 1983 and the others were 2004 and 2012, which means some thing will differ between them. Similar to the other two, this film also begins with the production companies being credited, but then it cuts to a boy writing on his notebook, which then fades out into the sun and music starts playing as the title of film slides through the film. One major difference is that this film lists its cast members all at once instead of spreading them out throughout the opening. The Outsiders also include a full three minutes of full credits, which the other two don't. 

    For my film, I would like to inspire the credits more on the way that The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Mean Girls does it because I feel like having it spread out throughout the whole opening allows for development of the characters and will not cut my filming time short. Overall, I'm really happy with the inspiration I've gained from watching there and I'm so excited to get started on making my ideas come together into a storyboard!

    Here's a picture of my note taking process when watching these films to help capture the uniqueness of each one and help see the differences between each as well.

Picking a Genre!

    This past week, me and my partner have been brainstorming ideas for what we would like our film opening to look like. We were both lacking inspiration because we were not liking any of the ideas we were coming up with, but after asking one of our friends for help to bounce off ideas and watching some film openings, we were finally able to construct 4 ideas that we could work with to develop further.

    We decided that the genres that we could end up working with could be either mystery or coming of age (or maybe even a mix of both), so we started research to help us decide which one would be best for us to use in our film and to further understand the genre and know what we should and shouldn't include.

Mystery:

    Mystery films are often characterized by their representations of unsolved crimes and suspenseful plots. They include a lot of close up shots, a specific color scheme, dark lighting at times, and will sometimes mostly focus on the setting where the crime or mysterious thing happened. 

    Some examples of mystery films include: Knives Out, The Prestige, and The Sixth Sense.

Coming of Age:

    Coming of age films are often character-driven, meaning that it focuses on the personal growth of a character transitioning from youth to adulthood. They often explore themes of self-discovery, friendship, love, and emotional growth. 

    Some examples of coming of age films include: The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Mean Girls, and The Outsiders.