Getting the story out effectively and rapidly- writer's block

 While revisiting my script, I found some ideas to include and help into edit the script to a shorter length, since 1 page equals to 1 minute. At the moment, I still have about 5 pages, meaning i should cut to at least 3 and work the rest while shooting. I know some parts that will need more polishing and shortening, such as changing to a montage scene, but i find myself with a writer's block. There are many reasons why, school work and other personal problems, as well as having thought of this particular idea for several days. But, there is no use to try and figure out the exact reason for it, like i read somewhere "you wouldn't sit down in a house on fire and wonder why it happened, you would try to get out of there". So, that is my plan of action, and since watching other creators and their own tips have helped me in the past, i will see the different techniques described in the video:                                                                                      

While the advice offered in the video seems to be more centered to writers in different areas and spots, i found many of the advice helpful. I do tend to not have much energy to do my own writing since i have other responsibilities and instead do leisure activities, at the end feeling guilty for not spending my time well. From those two described types of writer's block, creative and mechanical, i tend to have both, but more of the latter at the moment . At the moment, it seems that i do not want to revisit my story for the fear of "ruining" it or not knowing how to perfectly configurate a dialogue that is short but does not feel artificial. It will be useful to consider having my own set time for writing and avoid distractions, but it is not possible at the moment based on how my household operates, having to do it in the time that is available for everyone. I cannot exactly move to a new story, nor do i want to. Since, like being said, the first draft do not have to be perfect. In that way, i guess at this time i will "shelf" my story aside and think of other aspects of it that i can come out with, trying to give myself a break. 

I do feel disappointed for not being able to create the montages and shortened my dialogue, i was waiting to be able to show more of these edited pages and start on the next part of my process. But, as any time of process, it comes with effort and time, and similar to life, it does not go the way one wants it to go. The weekend will be used to complete editing my script, i want to be able to show a complete script with its first edit to a group of beta readers, form my family to some classmates. I do want to bring some compassion and understanding for myself, even if i have wrote a script before, i did not write it with the direct purpose of shooting it after being done, something that i am in the process of doing, and having many other external forces to be considered and achieve my mise-en-scene and tone. 

Citations:

McConnell, Austin, director. How To Beat Writer's Block. Youtube, 26 Nov. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WzAjg8j2UI&t=629s&pbjreload=101.

Establishing who my protagonist is: Mariposa

 With the couple of pages that i have of my draft, I decided to break down my protagonist in a more detailed post. I want t o be able to know exactly what kind of person i want her to be and look, to be able to edit my script to fit into those expectations, but also to help me how to indicate the actress how to work on her character and what kind of outfits and any extra props she may need. There are various aspects that i want to touch on, these are the pillars and parts of her character that would be more noticeable and important during the film:

Name:                                                                                                                                              Mariposa, female name, meaning "butterfly" in Spanish. Signifies her delicacy and sensitive nature, physically and mentally. It indicates her family's ancestry, of Hispanic origin, as well as an added layer of how her family perceives her.       

Age:                                                                                                                                               At first i expected for her to be in her mid-20s, since that could indicate how she is living alone and working an office job. But, because of the pandemic and external circumstances, i will be unable to find someone who could portray that age realistically, so i decided to change it to 18 to early 20s, more of college age, living alone as they are trying to liberate herself of her illness. With this new age range, it can also explain her naivetes and kind of rejection of continuing with treatment, since at that age one thinks they are "old enough" to know better, find their place in the world as new adults.

Outfits:                                                               I find this aspect of my script important, through her type of dressing, the mise-en scene, see how her mental state is declining as well. At the beginning it will a bright floral dress, similar to the one on the right. Yellow is sued to indicate her happy demeanor and bright exterior to the world, as well as having a juvenile look, almost like a child. But, yellow can also be somewhat "too" happy, almost like trying to hide something inside. As she is trying to battle through without any support, her type of clothing slowly progresses, form this to a more tuned dress, to a simple grey blouse, when having her lowest point, this is

the type of look i want to give her. Though the idea of the style, i don't want to fail into the stereotype of how a "depressed" person should look like, but for my character, it fits into her, since she does not feel her best while trying to battle her disease. The muted colors represented that emotional stage, jeans with how it is mostly something that she grabbed at last minute, not regarding herself. 

Relationship with others:                                                   There are not much other characters in my story, only two more major ones, such as her Dad and a friend, The relationship with her Dad is not necessarily stranded, but her father does not completely understand her disease and thinks is as easy as "just eating", indirectly pushing her to disease to drop treatment. Her friend tries to contact her after her birthday, she isolating herself not to be faced with how to explain to her friend how she is doing. 

Personal problems:                                                                The main point of the film, her battle against ARFID. Based on personal experiences and anecdotes by real-life Arfid patients, they claim that most of the foods that they can process are "bland" foods- white bread, crackers, plain pasta, etc. I will visualize that with the mise-en-scene, showing her fridge and cabinets containing mostly these foods, a couple of foods that she is challenging herself. Most people battle with the texture in foods, using a scene to show how she went and grab all of the foods that could be consider "not safe", such as chicken, vegetables, etc. This is the main point of my film, as well as accepting how help is not something to ask for and the process takes time. 

Some of this aspects to her character, as explained above, are done due to what i have available. For example, the outfits are easy to find within my clothes, not having to buy anything new, and, because of the pandemic, limiting the amount of actors to the people that i am staying with at my house. The adaptations may feel like limiting my options, but I like working my creativity within these constrains and be able to create new things.

Citations:                                                                                                                                        Elliot, Stephanie, and Kim DiRé. “What Exactly Is ARFID?” National Eating Disorders Association, 20 Feb. 2018, www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/blog/what-exactly-arfid#:~:text=Most%20people%20with%20ARFID%20have,noodles%2C%20crackers%2C%20and%20cereal.

“Tinfoil Kevin's Hobo Outfit With Conspiracy Cap. ... Memorabilia: Lot #82109.” Heritage Auctions, comics.ha.com/itm/memorabilia/movie-tv-props/tinfoil-kevin-s-hobo-outfit-with-conspiracy-cap/a/40154-82109.s.

“In the Spring of Things Midi Dress in M.” ModCloth, 2016, www.modcloth.com/shop/dresses/gilli-in-the-spring-of-things-midi-dress-in-yellow-floral/100000371550.html#product-thumbnail-4.

   

Re: Visiting Scriptwriting Formatting

 I have completed the first rough draft for my short film, "picking apart". I choose that title to be provisional while i started, since i find that getting stuck in minimal details will block you, the same way that i see, for example, that if i don't know how to solve a problem, I will to the next. However, i think that, as far as i come, that the tile is fitting, since in a metaphorical sense, I'm "picking apart" my character's personality and problems, and a play on words of how many people suffering from ARFID are considered "picky eaters". It was exhilarating to complete a script after not having done one since the summer and I tend to have multiple ideas playing in my head, but never find the time nor the energy to practice creative writing. I did found my moments where i felt stuck, a writer's block of sorts, but with a timer and a very brief description of the events that i want to hit, i was able to complete it. It is probable that i would have to cut some of my paper, after the first editing process, since in screen time, it is usual that 1 paper= 1 minute. This is the first page of my script:

My first type of editing that i would do is the kind of to fixing my formatting, since cutting material and dialogue is harder, at least for me, because i need to be able to get one day of not reading my script and then analyzing, to know exactly what scenes are of the most importance for my genre and tone, and which ones can be shortened or cut altogether. I have an advantage compared to someone who is completely new to writing in script form, i have some previous knowledge of how to format a script, following along on how i formatted before in my new script. However, the software that i used was First Draft, a software that is very much used by film professionals, as well as having many functions. 

However, since it only permits one moth trial before expiring , having to pay a monthly subscription after, and the current computer that i am using does not allow external downloads, i had to search for alternatives that were free. I could have used Word, but that would have been much more complicated to format, since i would have to do manually and change the size font and the font itself in each new line of writing. I was able to find Celtx, a free website that let's you have your different parts of your project , depending on what you are doing. Their design and layout, i found, to be very user friendly, obviously with less options for screenwriting than final Draft, but all the necessary for my project and less confusing when choosing options. 

From what i can remember, i would say that they are not any major formatting errors in my script, since the software is able to tell me what part of my script I'm working on, after a character, it comes their dialogue. However, i want to be able to have a good formatting throughout and revisiting the rules, is very probable that i have forgotten some rules. As well as, knowing how to include the types of shots in different scenes, since now i am more knowledgeable in that area and can and what type of shot desired. I found a Youtube video that has its way of explaining it, used as a refresher to what i can remember.

Many of the recommendations and rules helped me to realize some of the aspects that i forgot to include, as well as learning a more in depth reason for this formatting so different form others types of writing. In my scene heading, the descriptor for the place, i forgot to include the time of that the scene is taking place, i should indicate that it was "morning". I will think that my action description is good so far, i remember to capitalize the character's name as they first appear. I forgot to i
ndicate how the voice over would be heard, having to indicate that the dad is on the phone. The transition words, while the page above can only see one scene, i have different scenes to cut to, so the recommendation given have made me realize other choices, such as a match cut, for my scenes. The formatting for a montage has helped me to cut some of the time over to be shorter, since many of the long descriptions were not necessary and i saw the scenes as a montage since the first place. 

It was really liberating to learn these new ideas, it not only helped me correct my errors and mistakes, but it gave me ideas for new types of cuts and how scenes should be viewed in the film. Through this exercise, i decided to apply all of it into my script, doing my first type of editing of any type after just writing. This is what has happen to the first page:

It may not look that much of the text has changed, but i chose this page to be able to compare with my first draft, and i included some of the ideas that were described above. My next steps are: continuing editing and establishing my characters in a solid ground, listing what i may need when shooting. 

Citations:

“Celtx.” Public Media Stack, 26 May 2020, publicmediastack.com/workflow-stage/collaboration-editing/celtx/.

“Final Draft 11.” Writers Store, 2018, www.writersstore.com/final-draft-screenwriting-software/.

“How to Format a Screenplay : Screenplay Formatting 101.” Youtube, 19 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2uZ7IabVOM&feature=youtu.be.

My protagonist: How to "flesh out" a character in psychological realism

 Currently, while i start delving into my writing process, i need to develop my protagonist as well, since it is one of the most important factors in a story. Specifically in my genre, psychological realism, which one of their codes is concentrating in the psyche of the characters, what are their motivations and sorrows are. In more experimental and non-traditional representations of the genre, like the artistic representation on the side, it seems to be able to capture the changing nature of oneself. I do not expect to make a very nonconventional short film, since i think that would take much longer to develop and be able to explain, as well as the time constrain, but, for my character, i think i could get a similar tone and feeling in the film, as well as a similar shot with overlapping of the camera and sound.
Therefore, i have to able to detailed my characters experiences and ideas, but it does not mind to put a voiceover of what her thoughts may be, since in a film medium that would be too distracting for the viewer, compared to how in a first person narration in a book it would be different. In that way, their needs to be a visual representation on how the character may be feeling and their problems, for example, i will try to focus many of the shots and try to bring them into point of view shots, with and held movement for the closeness and the shaking nature of her disease, not knowing if she would be able to process food or not. This way, when cross cutting into a two shot, including other characters, the environment would be seen stable, comparing to how she sees it. Through my investigation of this genre, i found various book examples, not many films into this exact category, but i did find one in the psychological thriller, a subgenre of it. 

In Gone Girl (2014), based on the book by Gillian Flynn, it follows the disappearance of Amy Dunne and her husband and the public's reaction. It can be seen as how the division in the film occurs, as all of the actions made by the protagonist, Nick Dunne, are completely erratic and made him seen involved in Amy's disappearance. One example of this, as seen in the trailer, is the smile the character does in front of the disappearance card, as well as the way he holds Amy's head and how, with the low blue lightning and clear background, it makes her seen vulnerable and innocent. There are flashbacks showing him to commit violence against her.

 While delving more into the film, other instances makes the audience point to the husband, his actions of infidelity, but it is able to seen through the other characters and the actions he does in private, how he may not be the one to have committed the crime. In the climax of the film, it is discover that Amy is well, being in another place, hiding. The explanation of her actions and thoughts, through not justifying her actions, it brings the depth into the character and a reason that the audience can grasp into, not leaving it to be done simply because, "the plot needed for it to happen". That is the code for this genre, showing images in the character's mind, who may not always be what really happened, such as the fabricated memories shown tot he audience, a technique to show the viewer to think of what a character's is seeing to what is really happening. The conventions to show the character psyche, as described above, is mostly done by monologues, but this can be paired with how the character acts vs. them in private, sometimes showing a character to be manipulative, but can also be done to show someone's more real self. Their way of dressing and looks in general can also be able to do, a change in personality accompanied with a change in thinking, as seen in Amy's as her monologue is being played as a voiceover, her reaction to other women and the disapproving look in her face.In short, the mise-en-scene and more direct expressions to develop a character are heavily used in my genre. 

Now, this has helped me to identify how to portray the emotions into my short film, but i still need help into developing the character itself. I have found a name for her, Mariposa, meaning "butterfly" in Spanish, signifying her sensitive nature. Though i do not plan for this aspect to play a major role in the film, I do hope to dress my actress in bright colors, like a butterfly, and a decline as her mental state does as well. I want to be able to bring more of compassion and awareness of how her situation is something that many live through everyday, not doing it like other films to explain the wrong actions of my character. In this interview with a film screenwriter and director, he gives tips on how to create that feeling that i am striving for. The mistakes he claims that many do is giving their character too many character traits, such as funny, charismatic, etc, which are only the tip of the iceberg and would not help. Thanks to still be in the beginning stages, i haven't given my character many of them, but i will be beware of giving her more and concentrate in those that i have, portraying them profoundly. The two important things are: weakness and character's goal. I'm surprised that i have been able to already, or almost, be complete with that part, since her weakness, main personal problem, is her eating disorder, her goal is deeply connected to her weakness, living a life not dictated by her disorder, coming from her journey. 

An article that i read on Psychology Today described how to do that as well, from a psychologist expert point of view. It details how what the audiences usually search for in a film is "humanness", meaning the most natural and emotional acting to the fake scenarios being seen. For example, one of the ways to cause your audience to become more invested is to make sure the acting is not stiff and the dialogue and actions done by your characters, even if they may be silly, could be expected to be done in real life. That are some of the codes and conventions for my genre as well, trying to portray characters and their reaction as natural as possible, the realism. 

With the look into how i will be able to develop Mariposa, it has helped me to examine them for all angles and include more mental notes into the kind of shots and cuts i will make. Even though I will have to adapt to my options, such as how much quality there may be in my acting, I hope that my dialogue and actions itself may be seen as "realistic".

Citations:

Aguilar, Dubrawska, et al. “Psychological Realism in Benjamin Garcia's Art.” Panamerican World, 19 Nov. 2018, panamericanworld.com/en/magazine/travel-and-culture/psychological-realism-in-benjamin-garcias-art/.

Fincher, David, director. Cool Girl Monologue. Gone Girl, 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaoQNDIf6pY&t=47s.

Fincher, David, director. Gone Girl │Official Trailer [HD] │20th Century FOX. Youtube, 2014, youtu.be/2-_-1nJf8Vg.

Goldstein, Thalia. “Psychological Realism and Characters.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 22 May 2012, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mind-stage/201205/psychological-realism-and-characters.

“Gone Girl Poster. ID:1301457.” Movieposters2.Com, 2014, movieposters2.com/Gone-Girl-movie-poster_1301457.html.

Truby, John, . How To Make The Audience Care About Your Characters by John Truby. Youtube, 5 Sept. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt2PcwKHbxc.

My narrative: Broken Down and Explained

At this point in the process, I will start the task i am mostly familiar with, having completed a short script on the summer titled "A letter to my father". I will organize a new idea for the 2 minute time constrain, since my first project contains 21 pages and has been done at least 4 months ago. Thanks to my past experience with scriptwriting, i expect to be able to remember the formatting and the nuances that make scriptwriting different to other types of written storytelling. From what i can gather many of the industry parameters and terminology seem to originate, for example, the actions descriptions and how it is mostly done by dialogue, shaped by how plays are formatted. However, many more descriptions and actions are exclusive to dictating how a director should use the script and record it, such as some shot descriptions, audio choices and editing choices. 

The logline that i have for the short, though it is not necessary since the film will not be presented for a producer or film company to purchase and distribute, i still wanted to create one due to helping me break down the story to its basic essentials: What i am trying to say?, What i am trying to show? and what do the audience will see?. My two sentence description goes as follows: "A 20 year old women with ARFID decides to stop all medications and treatment to live a normal life. Her eating and behaviors become more erratic, alarming those around her, until she cannot hide it any more." While typing it, it feel like the story was flowing through my hands, i had some hesitations, but it is important to remember that adaptations are allowed, as long as they still contain the original message of the film. 

The story will follow the typical three-act structure: beginning (the setup), middle (climax and rising actions) and the end (failing action and resolution). I have chosen this type of narrative
since it is the more traditional and taught type of writing a story, having written stories like that before and therefore, being more comfortable with it. I had multiple other aspects in which it will be probable for me to feel uncomfortable and incapable at times, shooting, directing and editing to name a few, so not deviating farther than that seem reasonable. It has to be able to be understandable to an audience in 2 minutes, a more artistic take, using flashbacks and nonlinear following would require more time for the viewer to unpack what it has been seen in between scenes, leading to more time needed. 

 

In that way, my begging one sentence description is :Ana finds herself not wanting to live life dictated by her mental illness, decides to stop all treatment (therapy, medication, etc) altogether. The middle: While continuing with her work, starting strong, meal time gets ahead and triggers her back completely. At the end: Their family and friends start to notice, finalizing with an overload breakdown and asking for help. It may sound very basic from this short descriptors, but they are done to be so and be able to expand from. From each of them, i can break them down into smaller steps and beats to the story, developing its individual scenes. It is easier, for me at least, to have them done this way, since it is very likely to experience writer's block for not knowing how to continue the story.

The scriptwriting process is not easy to manage, knowing its formatting and how to create certain meaning with only dialogue and minimal action descriptions. But, at least one aspect of the writing is already done, completing the story progression and its three act structure.

Citations:

“The Three-Act Structure: 3 Steps to a Powerful Story Structure.” Reedsy, 15 June 2018, blog.reedsy.com/three-act-structure/.

Mejia. Alejandra. A letter to my Father, Final Draft, Script, 24 July 2020

The role of sound in creating suspense and anxiety

 I will claim to have settled into a more comfortable genre for my short film , psychological, since I’m trying to put the audience inside my protagonist mind, posing them to understand and make sense of their decisions. Connecting it to a previous post I have made, analyzing the movie “Carrie”, I want to achieve a similar feeling of understanding of the circumstances, but without falling into a horror or a tragedy, more like a neutral view. With this decision in mind, another aspect I choose to visit before my official start with scriptwriting and practicing is the sound. I can understand how sounds play into our brains, since I tend to get annoyed or distracted by the faintest of sound, but I’m still unaware of what sounds I could include in film to get a similar feel without it being “forced” or too low to hear.

This short clip shows the diagetic, inside of the world of the film, sounds. Even though it is for the psycho-thriller genre, I feel like they would fit into my story, since there are similarities between the genres after all. I found it helpful since it is easier for me to remember and register these sounds as a list than it being not organized, having a auditory cue for each, a guide of how they should sound. Another helpful aspect to it is how many of them can be easily reproduced in a non-traditional setting, having someone sob or whisper into an audio recorder, banging feet in the floor or scream, very accessible to be done in my own or with the help of someone in my house. The non-digetic sounds may be more difficult to achieve and I do not plan to include many in my film, since I feel it would take out of the experience of the intimacy and feel artificial. I may use a badly played piano, having one at my disposal, for a non-digetic sound effect if I feel it is needed and would not take out of the immersion. 

Another issue with the idea of sound usage is how the pitch and cutting of the film comes into place. I have discover and noticed how low pitch is used for dramatic purposes and pauses, while high pitches are to increase the anxiety of the viewer over what’s happening. Showing asynchronous sounds can show the actions of things happening before.showing it on screen. 

Sounds play an important part into how people will react, mostly relying on dialogue and what it’s left unsaid to show character’s emotions. I’m more comfortable working with that aspect of sound, but it has been interesting to understand how the more subtle sounds effects play such an important role in the audience. I hope to integrate them adequately and be more comfortable using them and considering them when starting script writing.

Citations:

Peter’s, St, director. Iconic Sounds of Psychological Thriller Genre . YouTube , 2014, youtu.be/Iwypdk5zTXk.

Camera work (shots, angles, movement, composition) to be used to focus on a character's psyche

In a combination of my past two analysis to the different types of genres and representation, i want to get more technical into what types of shots should be used to get the tone that i would want to achieve, not a biased and showing the raw-nature of the mental state of the protagonist, without getting graphic or triggering to anyone, but it should bring some uneasiness to the viewer, in a horror way. It may sound complicated to achieve this in only 2 minutes, since developing a character takes multiple scenes and story progression. However, I'm certain there would be techniques shared by filmmakers to use the camera work in favor of your premise and time. The following shots are the ones that I should rely on or use in a climatic moment to focus the audience:

The Point of Shot (POV) should be used when wanting to show how that character sees the world around them. It can change to see another character reaction or the same character the point of view is being filmed on. I can see this shot being used mostly straightforward, meaning the image would look the same if another character, from his point of view, were to see the same thing. However, i would like to use it similar to this immersive experience in the short film, "Party". 

 The character's point of view and 360 depth of field, it brings an added touch to the immersion, blurring the party as the character is having an overwhelming emotion and conflict inside themselves. It makes the audience understand what the person sees, without this scene, one would not understand their struggles or would consider their reaction "overdramatic". I would use this shot in special parts on my film, where my character is faced down to eat or in uncomfortable situations related to food, cutting then to how the other characters see it form the outside. 

Next step into creating the experience i would want, investigating the different types of angles are used in he genre. While the most common way to shot a film it is to use an eye-level shot, the camera in the same angle and level as the character. I will expect that including and changing the angles too many times would distract the audience from the premise and the characters, but it is important, for me, to bring that type of uncertainty into the film. In that way, the use of low angle shots from the point of view of the protagonist, when it is faced with

others confronting her for her issues, making the character feel vulnerable and not able to know how to respond, as well as connecting well with the different point of view. Changing into an overhead shot from the side, showing how both characters may seen as equal outside of the point of view shot, but the character feels secluded. The Dutch angle, an angle who breaks the vertical line rule of cinema, would also be included, since it plays with the uneasiness feeling of the disease and the mental breakdown of a character, could be combined with a far away and blurred depth of field.  

Base don the availability and having to adapt based on the equipment that i have accessible to me, some of the types of camera movement are out of consideration to be achieved, since many require cranes and dollies. Some can be achieved with some imagination and creativity, such as a moving car following the character to have a tracking shot. I have decided to use handheld shots, not only because I'm adapting, but it is the most useful for my short film, since it brings a sense of closer connection to the characters, shaky movements that feel more natural. It will help me in many scenes, shanking the camera to signify the overwhelming emotions of the protagonist, feeling intimacies of seeing someone from a camera and their innermost emotions, instead of a clear shot that would have felt artificial. Zooming and reverse zooming would be used to, to show the audience in what to concentrate on, as well as seeing what my protagonist is being anxious about, changing to the reverse zoom rapidly to show what other characters see. 

Depth of Field and camera composition in itself is a very extensive topic to discuss, now is going to be summarized to the information i would probably use in my short. The Shallow Depth of Field, with a shorter depth of field, when showing my protagonist, would be used since it has many connotations of loneliness and fear, following the character phased with foods. This depth of field can be achieved in my camera, with some proving shots that from people, made with the equipment that i have in hand.

Revisiting this ideas and concepts that i have had in mind helps me visualize what my story would look like, bringing more imagination to my mind and fleshing out my characters. Knowing what to use for my concept helps me feel more organized as well, not as overwhelmed and paralyzed of realizing my own short film. I hope to learn more of these technical actions, since i tend to be less technical and more comfortable with the creative side of writing, but i'm hopeful to start to be more used to them and now know how to put my ideas out, instead of pondering and imagining them in my head.

Citations:

“The Filmmaker's Handbook: How Are Low Angle Shots Used?: Watch: The Take.” The Filmmaker's Handbook: How Are Low Angle Shots Used? | Watch | The Take, 15 June 2020, the-take.com/watch/the-filmmakers-handbook-how-are-low-angle-shots-used.

girls, Windsor. “Camera Angles Used in Thrillers.” Windsor Girls School Media, 2017, windsorgirls.weebly.com/gemini-productions/camera-angles-types-in-thriller-films#:~:text=Close%20up%20shots%3A,is%20important%20in%20the%20film.

Higham, Russell. “10 Movies with The Best Uses of Point-of-View Shots.” Taste of Cinema - Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists, 25 Mar. 2016, www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/10-movies-with-the-best-uses-of-point-of-view-shots/.

Majumdar, Sumita, director. The Party: a Virtual Experience of Autism – 360 Film. Youtube, The Guardian, 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtwOz1GVkDg.

Martellaro, John. “How to Use Depth Control With IPhone XS/Max & XR Camera.” The Mac Observer, 25 Oct. 2018, www.macobserver.com/tips/how-to/depth-control-iphone/.

Representation of Eating Disorders on Media

 In an initial brainstorming session, i came up with the idea of portraying a young woman suffering from ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder), coping from her day to day life without much support and accepting how she needs help. It seem to me interesting to portray this type of eating disorder, since "extreme picking eating" is usually related to toddlers or young children and treated as an annoyance. I feel it is important to know a history of how the media, specially in films, has portrayed eating disorders in general, to not commit the same mistakes of misrepresentation or ignorance of how these type of mental illness work. I hope also to bring awareness and more compassion to these topics. 

The first ever movie to claim to portray these heavy topics is "The Best Little Girl in the World" (1981), being shown in cable television and sold in VHS. It is about a teenager suffering from bulimia and anorexia. The main portrayal is, a s it has been the stable of many to come, a

upper-class white female teenager wanting to look like the people she sees in magazines. The movie as well brings much deep attention to her emancipated body, focusing the camera in in the balance with a zoom and her weight in the promotions, and does not examined the deeper psychological battle going on and instead feels more like a melodrama. It is not to say to not show the difficult side, hospitalizations and family suffering, but it has been the only way media has been portraying these issues since then.

A more recent example is the the Netflix movie "To The Bone", starring Lilly Collins. Following the same stereotypical portrayal of sufferers, the protagonist being a white privileged teen. It has received many criticism for the same issue, focusing too much on how her body looks for shock value. It does give more "reasons" to the eating disorder, breaking the idea that they are only done to be "pretty". However, as seen in the scene, the group who accompanies the protagonist, are also people with eating disorders, with people of color and male patients, and not all with the archetype of what the body of a person with an eating disorder should " look like".

In this scene, putting Collins character in the seat by herself, shows how much isolated she feels, important to bring compassion to the character. Though with some improvement compared to the representation 36 years ago, it still can do better to show how these diseases are multifaceted and is not as easy as just "eating" and having some type of support.

For the eating disorder i would want to portray, ARFID, it has not been characterized in a fictional setting yet, as far as i had search for. This would bring both a challenge and an opportunity for me, since i don't have any type of parameters to be based on, but that also means i can start form scratch and offer my artistic vision based on my research, trying to be as compassionate and not stereotypical of the sufferers, since i would want the same if someone is trying to portraying a condition i may have. I did found a vlog of a person detailing the disorder itself, their personal experiences and thoughts on their own disorder.

I founded very interesting, seeing someone talk openly helps those who don't know about the disorder and find themselves learning something new. She also talks about the difference to how it is connected to sensitivity than to body image, interesting to note and find ways to show that visually. 

With all of this information, i hope to be able to portray it very respectfully and bring the information without concentrating in things for "shock" value. A way to show this sensitivity issue, could be making the food look unappetizing from the point of view of the character, and then cutting to how others see it, changing the background noise from higher to lower.

Citations:

Gale, Morgan,  I Have Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder | ARFID. Youtube, 9 May 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mw_ErZZMew&t=343s.

Noxon, Marti, director. Ellen's New Home - To the Bone Clip. Youtube, Netflix, 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjnEhTuQxTc.

O'Steen, Sam, director. ABC 1981 Monday Night Movie Open Best Little Girl in the World. Youtube, ABC, 1981, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew3D7iQS4B8.

Examining the Codes and Conventions of the Horror genre: Carrie (1976)

My mind tends to find it easier to create stories with a horror or psychological aspects included in some way, with a protagonist acting either in reason to their difficult circumstances or victims of their own mind. Still in the process of deciding into a story best fitting for 2 minutes, I’m exploring the different genres and what would be needed to achieve them to decide.

The cult classic movie, Carrie (1976), based on the novel by Stephen King of the same name, follows the story of Carrie White. She is a 17-year old with telekinesis powers, both
traumatized by her mother and peers. The themes of the story of a protagonist with a dualistic nature as well as seeing how the outcome could have been predicted yet striking to the audience. It has inspired many other films with similar premises as well as in pop culture.

Like many others, crossing the written form of a book to a film, choices had to be made of events to include or altogether changes to the original story. Haven both read and seen the movie, it has interesting to note those differences and understand why they were made. For example, the level of destruction caused by Carrie was far more explicit and damaging in the book than in the movie. The ending, one of the most important pieces to a story, was changed as well. Both explained and easily deduced by logic, these decisions were made due to the technological limits to special effects, not being able to achieve the scenes without it looking “fake”. It is important to notice how these changes were made in form of adaption, still having the main point across and the themes explicitly showed. Working with what it is at hand and available, as well as if a certain scene is not working, it is important to remember, especially if I like my idea, but feel stuck in place.

Another interesting fact,
the film uses many times the split screen focus, seen in the clip at 1:48, having both of the characters in focus in seemingly different angles. This type of camera work is considered unnatural, since eyes cannot compute images like that. It is interesting to use it, since it can fit into the unsettling tone of this film specially, seeing the character in not comfortable positions even in the camera work.

The same can be seen about the prom scene, the dizzying camera work of the two dancing brings unsettledness into what otherwise would be a sweet moment between the two. Knowing what camera work to use and utilize it in the correct moments, bringing the audience to subconsciously feel to where the story is progressing. Knowing how these shots were able to be accomplish, putting the camera in a rotary platform, it behinds to make me think of what I could use to get that shot, those types of exercise machines that rotate come to my mind.

Using the color theory and the mise-en-scene to achieve this genre is very subtle int his movie, but can still be noticeable. The use of the dull and calming colors, such as blue and pink, in the prom and in the people’s outfits, can make people believe how things may end up well, as well as bringing unevenness since it is a horror film. After being splashed with blood, the contrasting red against the blue background feeds into that feeling, lowering the lights and bringing Carrie into the center of the shot. The unwelcoming environment of Carrie’s home, cluttered with religious imaginary, lets us know the mom’s character even before having met her. It is important to note how the colors into a film bring certain emotions, using soothing colors in a horror film is not wrong, since it would follow into a surprise and suspense. Characters can get to be done and considered “Scary” by how their environment looks.

I enjoyed visiting this classic for the first time, though certainly knowing the ending, both while reading it, it still evoke many feelings in me, mainly compassion for Carrie. Bringing your audience with compassion into a fictional character is not as easy as it may seen, but it is interesting to include in horror since not all stories are “good vs. bad”, the terms may become gray and the audience will be let to decide what their ideas are. I hope the bring the same kind of observation and pondering into my story, since I feel like including a character suffering from a illness rarely seriously addressed.

Citations:

“Carrie.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt0074285/mediaviewer/rm3252758528/.

“Carrie-Trivia.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 2014, www.imdb.com/title/tt0074285/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv.

De Palma, Brian, director. Carrie (1976) - Dance Scene. Youtube, 1976, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaaLNjD8L8s.

De Palma, Brian, director. Carrie 1976 "Beautiful!". Youtube, 1976, www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIzRr3im4Cc.

The process behind creating a short film- what has worked before and new formats

 Marking the start of a long thought process such as the creation of a creative piece is usually become meddled up in my brain, with lines of thought coming and going, no clear path to where they start or finish. What has worked best in the past to narrow down my constant brainstorming is to put ideas on paper and see if they continue to excite me. But, I have two more organized ways of choosing, one that I learned during the summer and a new one more recently

The one that I learned first goes as follows:

Step 1: Come up with 5 ideas

This exercise leads my mind wonder around different ideas, but still having more of a structure that simply writing them down. It details to have a short synopsis, describe the protagonist’s goal and the antagonist, the force between the protagonist and its goal. These ideas had to be able to be seen as shorts as well, so many long term stories that I may have had were discarded firsthand, helping me adapt and coming up with stories that will fit into these parameters.

Step 2: Writing a logline, a sentence for beginning, middle and end, expand from those

While it may see counterproductive to write a one or two-sentence description of your initial idea, it can help to come to what the core of the story is about, as well as noting what is the most important aspect of it. Then, by doing a simple description of each step of the three-act structure, serves the same motive, expanding from it and explaining why each choice is necessary and serves a purpose for the stories’ development and characters. It can help to see, for the future screenwriting, how the story may move and act accordingly to this pace.

Step 3: Answer questions as your protagonists

It is a very cathartic experience to answer questions as your character, similar to a character sheet, but more personal. While of these details will probably not end up playing an important role in a short
story, it is interesting to bring the character more depth and understand how they would react to the situations that they are being put in. The Basics may seen to include information that is not relevant in a normal day, but you can decide which will or not, having to separate yourself from your character, deciding how similar or not to you they are.

Step 4: Beat Sheet and Structure:

Similar to earlier steps, it is the closest it will come into actually writing the first draft, with all of the events neatly organized and classified into their respective acts. It is the simple events, not much with detail. You can choose what to include or not, helpful for those who tend to get writer’s block and do not how to continue, outlining it first.

From this point, the story can write itself, not literally, but only had to be formatted into the chosen form. While this structure has helped me in the past, the other new type of creating this film, without much strict parameters, less tedious and helpful if you are lacking ideas is:

Step 1: Theme

From the preexisting themes, it is easier to see how many stories develop from these, even though it may appear they are original. It is not to copy themes, it is to get one and be able to see how they are in the story overall. Can be more than one, to help idea how they interrelate.

Step 2: Premise

It is the moral or the advice that you want the audience to take after they finish with the story. It can help to start to envision how you would want to portray your theme, with the different technical elements. Many themes go well with a certain premise, but a unique combinations of them can help to adapt and become more creative.

Step 3: Characters

By creating the characters to fit into the main story, not vice versa, helps to see which types of individuals or creatures are able to personify the idea. As well as creating form archetypes, helping bring more plots into the story.

Step 4: The Genre

The genre of each film comes with certain codes and conventions, the ideas and images that make people be able to identify the genre easily. It groups similar films together, but can help focus in which direction you would take the story a premise of “life not fair” in a comedy would develop and feel different than the same premise in the drama genre.

While continuing form the main idea you have to create a short film would still need more development than this. By analyzing and listing the different methods, I will probably use a combination of the two, using the last described as the beginning of the process and the first as getting ready to jump into scriptwriting. At the moment, I have ideas already develop, having two, with a few changes, from my initial brainstorming. With the following post, I hope to be able to have a definite answer.

Citations:

Gregory, D.W. “99 Questions to Ask Your Character - Dramatics Magazine.” Dramatics Magazine Online, 17 Apr. 2019, dramatics.org/99-questions-to-ask-your-character/.

Jordan, et al. “How to Choose Good Themes for Stories: 5 Tips.” Now Novel, 15 May 2017, www.nownovel.com/blog/choosing-themes-for-stories/.