Props

This is a tentative list of props for Sock of Love:

- Sock / Sock Puppet

- Office supplies & decorations

- Car

- Glasses

- Popcorn

- Ice cream / Ice cream carton

- Flowers w/ Card

Dealer's Choice Pitch

Sydney Hunter is a high school girl whose life was good until her mother passed away in a car accident. Living with her workaholic aunt, she attempts to sew the pieces of her life back together on her own terms, until she’s given a mysterious diary on her birthday. But when she goes to write her troubles down on its pages, she realizes that her personal journal is actually a two-way connection to a boy, Andrew Lions, that may just save her from the loneliness she feels.

His good nature on paper doesn’t reflect his sarcastic remarks in real life, but as the audience learns that her aunt has made this older boy, the girl’s personal guardian, we realize that he knows her, but she knows him only vaguely from the distant past where his mother once invited him over as a family friend. Even more alarming is the fact that he doesn’t appear to be quite fit for the job. In life outside the journal, he’s a freshly graduated college student who works as a part-time plumber. He’s completely rough around the edges, and doesn’t seem to trust anyone until he meets Sydney.

Sydney on the other hand is a bright, sensible senior in high school who tends to only see the good in others, getting hurt by the constant betrayals of those who seek to use her good nature. A dare that she writes about planning to take makes him come running to her rescue. As a result of finding her and having coax her (a girl afraid of heights) down from a tree he tosses the journal aside and ultimately ends up revealing his identity. At first he attempts to deny it, but when she confesses that she likes him he can’t turn away. Instead, he awkwardly begins a relationship with her.

*Central point? People and relationships aren’t always good or bad, black or white. Everything’s usually a shade or gray. We may not know why people are they way they are, but people come in layers… sometimes the under layers that we only show to a few select people

*Central goal of this film? Overall, the two change each other for the better, and get together at the end. I guess you could say, the goal is that he becomes a better person and she feels less lonely.

*In abstract terms? In abstraction, there are often forces out of our control that make up things like love. In this case, it’s a magic book and a freak accident. Things don’t always go the way you plan, not even when they’re planned perfectly, but that doesn’t mean they have to end badly.

Project 3 - Inspirations

This idea derived out of a few different sources. The first is amovie called The Lake House: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fInwmjONHw The hook and line to this film being that two strangers are communicating through a house's mailbox, through time (a span of 2 years).

The next is from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in reference to tom Riddle's diary.

It refers to a split soul's ability to communicate to the living (and suck their life force) and after he is deemed to be dead.

And the third (and probably most strong) inspiration is a book called Dengeki Daisy.

A man is made to watch over a girl after her brother passes away. She doesn't know his identity for a while, as she texts him pieces of her life on her phone. She doesn't know, but the two have already met and become friends. He is often thick skinned to most, and violent to those who threaten her. His good nature is often painted over by a false facade of sarcasm.

Project 2 - Video Lock

So while I was editing, I noticed things I hadn't noticed while we were shooting. A few significant errors were a sound issue, lighting issue, and placement error. At one point the sound goes out completely for several takes, then abruptly comes back in (I'm almost completely certain we didn't change anything in between). Hopefully, I can get the chance to fix this error when I sound edit later. Another issue was lighting. At one point in a scene (which was also in the no sound range) was lit drastically different. I suppose the lesson is that even a light that does not light an area directly can still affect it if its taken away (especially in the case of a colored light). One last error to note is that there was a scene where my arm and the top of Ashley's head were in the mirror of the shot. We had intentionally attempted to hide in a place we thought we couldn't be seen. Lesson learned - multi directional mirrors are bad, bad, bad!

Otherwise, the edit went smoothly. There were a few rocky moments, but for our first real film, I'm very pleased.

Project 2 - Self-Critique

1. Title: The Bad Day

2. Main Idea: The original idea was a woman who was having the worst possible day of her life--she gets fired from her job, her electric gets cut off, and she finally loses her house. The end result or combining three different versions of this turned into something much more mild.

3. Source: I suppose the idea originated out of a group discussion between Ashley, Robbie, and myself. We all know what a bad day feels like, and how that can come crashing down on your shoulders. I can't speak for the other two people in my group, but it felt slightly personal in parts. There have been days that all I wanted to do was just go home go to bed and forget that they ever happened.

4. Audience Key Emotion: Even with the content of someone having such a horrible day, perhaps the audience can see humor in it all, as well as the anger and frustration that comes with it. Bad days are a kind of plague of injustices--usually one right after another. Yet on more than one occasion, I found myself laughing, because on some strange level, we feel the humor as well as the anger.

5. Synopsis: A woman has an overwhelming day at work. Attempting to stay on top of the situation, she leaves early, but her bad day doesn't stop there. Various incidents continue even at home. But the "bad" does end with the day, and the next day, she's ready to be back on top of the world.

6. Theme When Finished: People seem to get the most upset over the little things--the stuff we know we can't change. Yet even though we sometimes are plagued with the daily grind, we constantly strive to go forward. Though hard work is not always rewarded, at some point, there comes a limit to how much can be thrown at us, and when we reach that limit, somehow everything lightens up. There can be no dark without light, discomfort without humor, or strength without pain. After all, hasn't it been said, "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger"?

7. Our Strengths: One great strength of this film, I think, is that it contains some measure of humor. When I looked at the last stack of papers and boxes that was being stacked inside the office for the last office scene, I just had to laugh, because I would have walked out too. It shows us the meaning of being "human." I think that is an area that we succeeded with this film. We took what was good in the original idea (the overall "bad day" concept) and toned it down to relate to the average person. I was also quite pleased with our actress's performance throughout. I think she did quite well, especially knowing her shy personality, so kudos to her.

8. Problems: Lighting was always an issue. Right off the bat, I knew that the actress we had didn't own a pair of contacts, so we were going to have to be as careful as possible about the glare on her glasses. The spaces we were working in often made our lighting sets overpowering. Since some of the scenes I was scheduled to light took up a lot of area and time in shooting, I often found myself looking for alternatives (extra filters, perhaps a way to use a bounce card, subtracting a light source, asking the director time and time again what their preference for the lighting was). Sound was only an issue in my mind because it was always something that I kept forgetting about. I kept forgetting to turn the mic on and off, and on one particular take, I'm still not entirely sure everything was connected correctly. The wind outside this weekend was also atrocious. I've heard countless complaints about the same wind from other students in my sound class, as they recorded sounds outside this weekend. It wasn't something that could be changed, but thank god for the muff. Without that, it would have been even worse. All in all, I got much better with the sound as time went on. I just need more time and experience with that equipment. The only problem with the camera for me seemed to be my zooms. I still need to get the hang of the speed and timing for them, as well as when I actually want to do a close-up. Overall, my main challenges lay mostly in technical things and inspirations to write a version of the script that could be combined later. Scripting challenges, however seemed to be aided by ideas from the other two people in the group.

9. Journal: One thing I learned is that, while the three-light system is probably ideal, it doesn't seem to work well in small spaces. One or two lights is about all a small space can take. I also learned that while the three-light system may be overpowering, a single light can supplement an overhead light or even a built-in side-light. Another thing that I learned by the end of the day was just how long the process takes. The first time setting up with all the equipment, plus props, took nearly two hours. We were trying to help each other remember everything, and so it took forever. Also, in the future, if we plan to shoot in more than one location, I think we should probably plan for more than one day of shooting. There was a lot of waiting for various people throughout, depending on their appointed tasks. Another fantastic discovery is that it's great to have more crew members than just you. :) I wouldn't have made it without the other two members of this group this time.

Lighting and Eyeline

Eyeline -

Observing the eyeline of people filmed on screen, normally, people appear to be at the 2/4 area of the screen, or perhaps even the exact line where the 1/3 and 2/3 part of the screen meet.

|---------------------|

|---------------------|If this <-- were a TV image, the eyeline would be

eyeline <-- here

|---------------------|

|---------------------|

|---------------------|

This of course, varies slightly for far away shots, but for middle and close-ups, this formula appears to be common, as seen in series such as Torchwood and movies like Hunt for Red October.

Lighting -

Lighting appears to vary. On TV shows such as The Office, outdoor lighting and simply the use of built-in overhead lighting seems to be used quite frequently. To make characters pop out from their surroundings, background objects were often placed out of focus. One series that I believe has excellent lighting is Legend of the Seeker. While many shots appear to be outdoors, Shadows appearing on the face are softened dramatically. Dungeon scenes appear to cast more harsh shadows, indicating a creepy atmosphere. When the characters go into a dark area at a time of intense drama, backlights are increased for an intense halo, while almost completely doing away with any source of light for the face. While movies like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy used similar effects, their lighting crew went above and beyond. In the scene involving the first meeting of Galadriel, a set of christmas lights were strung up in front of her as to reflect "starlight" in her eyes to symbolize her wisdom and immortal nature. Light appears able to create mood, verify the reality of a location, perhaps tell something about a character, or to add drama or calm to a scene. Without lighting, the world of movies and TV would likely be doomed.

In the real world, light is not so perfect. Looking around, flourescent light appears in a large amount of office and school buildings, causing a person to look rather flat and overly illuminated. Other overhead lighting causes shadows in areas of the face that are not usually shadowed (upper forehead, versus bottom lip). Lamps usually light one side of the face. Touch lamps are much like studio lights, and create a very interesting array of shadows based on your proximity and location in relation to the touch lamp. Indoor lighting can be somewhat of a trial and error process.

Group Assignment - The Portrait

Partners for this project are Robbie Siskin and Ashley Holmes. Remaining elements of assignment can be found on their blogs.

Costume List:

Casual shoes (1 pair)

Formal shoes (1 pair)

Jeans

blue tank, checkered over-shirt

Black Pants

Long Sleeve White Blouse

Gray Vest

Props List:

• fake flowers
• photo w/ frame
• vase
• paper
• pens
• clipboard
• post-it notes
• porcelain cup
• boxes
• portfolio
• keys
• car
• step ladder

Set Dressing List:

• Paper
• boxes
• include most pre-existing materials
• clear away various changing elements in the warehouse & household clutter

Shot List

• Robbie directs - warehouse scenes (camera - Celia, lighting - Ashley)
• Robbie directs - office scenes (camera - Ashley, lighting - Celia)
• Ashley directs - outside of house scene (camera - Celia, lighting - Robbie)
• Ashley directs - coming into house and walking through dining room and kitchen scenes (camera - Robbie, lighting - Celia)
• Celia directs - balcony scene (camera - Robbie, lighting - Ashley)
• Celia directs - bathroom scene (camera - Ashley, lighting - Robbie)

Shot Date/Call Time/Logistics

All cast and crew meets at MCA at 10am on Saturday 2/6/10.