Filming: first attempt

 As mentioned in my last blog we set up props and filmed. All went well but we did have to resort to our last option. This was because our original actors couldn’t make it to shooting. But we made use of ourselves and tried our best to fix our problem.

As you can see, we had it all how we wanted it to be set up. But both me and my partner felt like something was wrong. As if it wasn’t giving the same I guess you could say “vibe” which what was really throwing off our setting. And it’s not that the actors were bad it was just that the essence in which we were trying to capture wasn’t captured. And this is one challenge that we had to face and thought we gonna have to deal with.

Balloon ring

So we faced troubles. In our opening we want our couple to be wearing rings in order to signify their marriage. Which as most know is most commonly shown through wedding rings. But we had to get a little creative with ours…

So, my partner’s father had lost his wedding ring and we want the wedding ring to be a big part of the opening, showcasing that they were a married couple. In order to improvise my partner cut out balloons from her brothers previous birthday and used that instead which actually worked very well when it came to filming.

Props

 We gathered our props for our opening today. Obviously they aren’t the only ones that will be participating in the opening but they are the most important. I like to believe that each of these props have a true meaning to them and are those little details that the viewer should focus on. My partner and I are going to focus as much as we can on these props in order for the viewer can understand the relationship of all them.

The phone

The phone would represent the relationship between Pablo and his child which is distant but still close in a way. Now, we all know phones are used to communicate and that’s exactly what will be lacking in the opening, communication.

Roses

The roses will represent Pablo and his wife, Rosa and their currant status. Which is one being dead and the other being alive. Not shown in the picture but in the opening we plan on using one flower to represent Rosa and another flower which is very much alive representing Pablo.

Record player

We wanted our characters to have a special bond and music will signify this bond. Although, it’s not throughly shown in the opening the dancers will be dancing to music which will represent this love and the record player will represent the old fashioned couple themselves.

Group meeting

 Well, we started off our conversations with explaining each and everyone of our openings. When doing this we would receive feedback and help each other  to improve the opening. Once introducing the idea we would talk about our struggles with it  and how we could fix it. When it came to my opening I was given feedback and told what I could to point more to the hint that the husband killed his wife.

We started off with my peer, Balthazar, who's using a horror as his genre. He seemed to be struggling mostly with audio and what type of sound he wanted to use so, we told him he could find different sounds on different websites such as "Purple Planet" and also gave our personal suggestions as to how he could incorporate sound into the opening. So, we would basically focus on one person, go through their blogs, and give feedback.

Location

 My partner and I decided to make a remote place for our setting in order to have an image of what we want to setting to look like. Luckily both me and my partner have similar home setting in comparison to the drawing. We decided to use my partner's home when it came to filming. Not only do we want our actors to feel comfortable but we want everything to match up with our imaginations. 

One problem is that, in the drawing there seems to be little to no furniture and house decor at all. Obviously since this was a rough draft it wasn't going to be very detailed. But when filming we are going to include more furniture and decor in order for the opening to feel more realistic. We still do want our main pieces to make an appearance of course because some of these pieces are the biggest parts of the opening. 

Representation in our opening

 So we decided to make our characters Hispanic. We decided to make they’re nationality known once we were writing the script. The actors are Hispanic so naturally we decided that this could be an opportunity for representation. Since my partner and I are Hispanic we also wanted to incorporate that into our opening and think of how it can help the opening and make even more of an impact.

So in the script we decided that the characters wouldn’t only speak English but also Spanish as well. Most refer to it as “Spanglish”. This is when one is speaking both English and Spanish in between their sentences. As I mentioned before our actors are Hispanic which inspired us to make an opening in which incorporates that. As you can see in the script the son/daughter and father are having a conversation in mostly English but they do switch languages at times. I also believe this will have an effect on our Latino community because speaking “Spanglish” with my parents is something that I don’t feel is represented enough in media and should be shown more. For example, in “West Side Story” they speak both English and Spanish when speaking with each other.

Rosa's mood board

  When it came to rosa's character my partner and I didn't really know what we could do. We didn't know how much she could contribute to the opening and if it was relevant to make a mood board for her at all. Seeing that her husband, Pablo already had all the things needed for the opening. But my partner pointed out that Rosa is a very big part of the opening and seeing her mood board can show how she feels thinks and the energy she will give during the opening.

So in her mood board I decided to make the background color a grey to represent her death and how she's passed unlike Pablo's who is blue, representing his aura. Then the image of an older woman shows how we imagine her to look and give us a visual representation of what we want to be working with. The jewelry is to simply point out that she's older and she will perhaps have jewelry in the opening. Now, the rose is something especially important because in our opening we want one dead flower like so and one alive representing the state of the couple. The few other images are just a representation of what type of person Rosa was when she was alive and her relationships and interests.