COLORSSSSSS

 I love color and how it can completely change a shot or even the quality of a production. I've  decided that this is the color scheme I want, not only for my movie posters but also just for the trailers overall.

The blues and the white work together to create a cold, eery feeling that is meant to be constant throughout the production. The other neutral colors are imbedded with the idea of cool and warm tones that compliment each other and are needed to balance out composition. This would be natural things like her hair, clothes and skin color.

Even thought eh film doesn't show an actual lab, it does imply that there is a procedure done on her and I think it's important to keep this aesthetic and color scheme going.

DAY TWO STILLS MOVIE POSTER

 

I mean COME ONNNNNNNN. So dope. These were shot with my Nikon 7100. We played a Youtube video in the background and I had Martina stand in front which created this silhouette effect.

day two filming: 3/19 + Behind the Scenes

 Today was so good. SOO GOOD.

What scenes did we shoot day?

1. Overall establishing shots of the building (Lab)

2. Hypnosis scenes

3. Discovering her file

Now I know this doesn't seem like a lot but it was a lot of shots and they have genuine meaning for the film. SO you ask: Vane why did you drive 40 minutes for only 20 seconds of footage. AUTHENTICITY. This conference room and office in general added so much to the legitimacy of my film and tied in perfectly with my vision. The gas wasted was worth it 100%.

Here's some of our BTS from today:

Equipment for today: My Nikon 7100 camera, an extra lens (200-300mm), tripod, extra battery, charger!

Shooting our elevator scenes: Fun fact Martina is scared of elevators but you did not hear that here! thanks byeeee.

The lovely 40 minute drive to Aventura where all drivers forget to put their turn signals and are constantly on their phones... Fun!

Filming some of our contract and hypnosis scenes with the camera and the tripod all set up.. very exciting things coming!

first day of filming: 3/18

Days until due date: 29 days

HI I AM SO EXCITED TO DEBRIEF YOU. Let's talk about my first day of filming. 

I decided to take the weekend of spring break to film because: 1. Martina was available 2. I'm leaving on Wednesday 3. My schedule is booked for the rest of forever 4. I could actually sit down and focus on this.

Let's talk about what I did today. Basically today I focused on the Character Trailer, doing the shots of her seeing her doppelganger and really focusing on the after effects of the trial as opposed to the second trailer. First off, I went to Martina's house to pick out the different outfits that we were going to work with so I could establish her character. This was key to show that all these events are happening over a sequence of days. It's a small detail that makes all the difference to make the storyline as authentic as possible. Here are the outfits:

I was going for college student that needs money. The jeans, flannel, messy hair and big glasses all reflect this vibe and are a constant throughout the outfits.

What scenes did we shoot today?

1. Waking up next to doppelganger

2. Different room shots on bed and chair

3. Manic identity episode in bathroom mirror

4. Watching TV scene

5. CVS doppelganger scene

6. Bathtub scene

7. Interrogation scene

All of these scenes work together for one main idea: Diana is losing her mind. Like genuinely. I wanted to take this day and focus on these shots and sequences because this is what sells the idea of after effects. We didn't run into any trouble during filming and most of it went pretty smoothly!

STILL SHOTS FOR MOVIE PSOTERS!

 

playing around with puns

 muahhahahah 

Okay so some of my favorite parts in movies is where you can catch what are called "Easter Eggs" or hidden meanings. For me it's not even about it being that deep, just about the fact that some common theme ties elements of the move together. The name of my film was originally going to be "Trial 143" but someone brought up to me that 143 actually meanings "I love you'. BOOOOORING. Naming it that would be like leaving it up for interpretation and my film absolutely has nothing to do with love so SCRATCH THAT.

I would now like to introduce "Trial N3", which was one of the options anyways so it's not like a real introduction.

As I said before in a previous post, this film has to do with hypnotherapy and the sleep realm. I wanted to play around with the names of the sleep cycles and their stages, N3 being the deepest stage of sleep, hence Trial N3. Wow. Yes. Okay. Something that is also important that I haven't talked much about yet is developing my character. Last year, I used the name Diana since it has various mythological ties and I loooove myself a good easter egg. Diana last year = Diana this year. I love that name and so I decided to keep it. Very original I know, but it is kind of important to me since it shows that I'm keeping one constant factor (apart from going deep into weird psychological thrillers.

The name of my character.... Diana Rem!

Ha! Rem! Get it. Okay. That is not a subtle easter egg at all and hopefully people catch on but It does make me laugh to know that I'm adding weird things in.

Sincere Apologies from the Absentee

 Hey! 

I feel like I've been so busy with other things that I haven't been able to blog and that feeling is the worst. This weekend is super important since it's the 3 (or 4) days that I'll be filming and I really need to finalize my shot list so by the time I get Martina we can maximize our time. 

So far this is how the Shot List is looking:

Trailer 1: Genre 

• focus on Trial and the actual hypnosis itself

• Focus is on the beginning of the movie, or the first act.

Things to remember:

• How to upload music into premiere

• The lighting that I need for trailer 2

Plot:

• Main character approaches the building cautiously.

• Voiceover of a conversation with her friend plays over this entering sequence. 

• “Maybe it could help me out with my general anxiety”

• “Or maybe it won’t do anything”

• “Look, it’s good money and I need it for med school, I don’t really get

• what the big deal is.”

• “Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool. You’re handing over control to someone else,

• you do get that right””

• “I really doubt it’ll do anything, you need to relax. I’ll be fine”

• 
  

• 
  

• 
  

I am NOT an expert on this, it is 100% out of my comfort zone since I excel in creative direction and composition the most. Honestly to any other person this looks like a random jam of ideas (and it is) but I think once I clean it up today it'll look a LOT better to whoever reads it.

Ideas:

• Flannel 

• Messy Bun

• Jeans

Shot List Idea 1:

• Establishing shot of apartment complex or city (could be filmed at vista view,

• or in aventura where we actually film)

• (music thud as the building is shown)

• Close up panning shot of her passing by the camera, Michael Bay reference shot 35-50mm)

• Mid shot zooming as she walks into the elevator

• Long shot of clock on wall with ticking effect

• Diagonal angle Long shot of her walking towards elevator

• Mid shot of the elevator closing in her face

• Mid shot from behind of her walking out

• *VOICE OVER ENDS*

• Mid shot walking towards desk

• Close up behind the desk, “Hi I’m checking in for _______. I saw it online and this was the address.”

• Mid shot of her reaching towards glass

• Close up of hand revealing no one is there

• Mid shot looking around “What the’

Trailer 2: Character, After Effects of Hypnotherapy

Shot List Idea 2:

• With strong light beaming at her face, she leans forward in the chair “Can-I-Can I talk now” Long shot

• Mid shot “Please look at the light and read the card”

• Mid shot, looking nervous and fidgeting into place “Oh, right, okay yeah.”

• Nerve wracking close up “My name is_______ and I’m….(eyes skimming over the words on the card) 

• and I’m  voluntarily entering Trial 143 for Hypnotherapy”, more of a firm voice at the end

• Focus on eyes and lips

• Close up of only face “Do I have to do that again”, looking around to the side

• Cue the production logo and suspenseful music underlying

• Cue voiceover of conversation with friend X

•  “Hypnotherapy medical trial, offering up to 50,000. 50k are you kidding me? That’s enough to get started in school” 

• Mid shot of Martina on my bed reading off of her computer.

• “The fuck. Let me see that”

• Shaky mid shot of Virginia walking over.

• “Yeah, but have you read this ad? This basically says nothing (Pointing accusingly at screen).”

• “It says 50k, and it has the address of the place. I can just check it out beforehand or something”

• “Yeah, but do you even know the after effects of hypnotherapy” *VOICEOVER*

Switch to some sort of therapy room, music tenses up:

• Quick establishing shot of patient and therapist set up

• “I’ve been experiencing some strange dreams” Mid shot of Martina

• Diagonal close up shot, Marina looking down nervously

• Mid shot of therapist, silent but staring with blank expression

• Close up shot of therapist writing down in notebook

MUSIC CRESCENDO 

“I feel like I’m seeing myself… everywhere. I know that sounds crazy but I’m not. It’s something about the

reflections everywhere. Things around me are just distorted. “I just feel like I’m losing my mind. But I’m not.

Have any other patients experienced this.. Have they? I’m not crazy am I?”

Trippy shots:

• Laying in bed mid shots,

• Close up of frown, rolling over/ turning around

• Doppelganger staring through mirror or laying down

• Whiplash back to original martina yelling startled in the bed

• Quickly getting ready and shuddering

• Putting on jacket to leave

• Looking into bathroom mirror and seeing her reflection

• Bathtub shot of her slipping

• Mid shot of just her face almost asleep under water

• Startled waking up

Settings: 

• My room

• Bathtub

• Hannah's parents office

• Therapist room??????

welcome to... the lab.

 

Hiiiiiiii. Ok I'm so excited . I went to Aventura to Hannah's parents office and these are a couple of shots that I got. I NEEEED to perfect my shot list so we can absolutely optimize our time there. I'm planning to shoot on the weekend so we won't be bothering anyone at all and honestly have the freedom to do whatever we want, not in a bad way but in a comfortable way. I also snuck into the building next door (Boooo I know) but I fell in love with the clock. I honestly just want a shot of that.

I feel like I got a lot more inspiration from being able to see exactly where I'm going to shoot and how it's going to look. I feel it's so difficult to do a shot list and have a vision without actually going and investigating. Definitely exciting and also very nervous. I really don't want the editing to come in last minute so I'm going to be sacrificing a lot to get this project done exactly how I want it.

scheduling!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Okay this is a little sneak peek at what my month looks like for now. I was so stressed and honestly overwhelmed because we reached the halfway point and I felt like I reached a standstill. Putting it all on my calendar actually helped me out so much. I know that people always say it does and I do in fact choose to ignore it but yea..... it helped! So thank you to my mom who told me "Just write it all down" every single time I've complained about a stress induced headache.

Basically it's looking like I'm going to be editing the weekend of spring break and I blocked out 4 shooting days which honestly seems like more than enough for me. I've been perfecting my shot list because one of my settings is in Aventura and there is no way I'm driving more than two days there because I feel like it would be unfair to Martina and to my gas bill.

location. scouting. YAY.

 hi guyssss. jk. Hi guys. Big Girl Punctuation.

I have super duper exciting news. Nobody says super duper but ok. Basically during our group critiques in class i was talking about how worried I was about location scouting and all that but ding ding ding... Hannah's parents have an office that I can totally use. She mentioned it so I was like YES. Literally immediately yes. So i asked her like when I could film and she sent me the address of the place. It kind of started out as a joke because it's a stretch to be filming in an officer where people like... actually work. But then I was like hey. Opportunity has presented itself, we might as well take it right?

mmmm... 

Yea so basically that happened. I literally drove 45 minutes to go location scouting on a Friday. SO I checked out the place and honestly it helped me process a lot. I've been working on a shot list but it's honestly so difficult to develop when I don't know what my locations look like at all. I'm a very visual person. Genuinely I need to see where I'm going instead of only having it mapped out in my head. Honestly it also calmed me down a lot because location was a huge problem. 

Hannah's parents officer, let's called it the lab so it's easier. Lab. Catchy. Ok moving on. WHere I want to shoot is the conference room adn what I had in mind was her signing her contract there and also having her therapy sessions. A big problem with that is figuring out the casting. I had the idea of her coming up to the front desk but I think it might be difficult if I don't have an adult who is willing to shoot.

Big Girl Punctuation :(

 Ok I got flamed for only using lowercase letters. Booooooo.

But today I had my second class meeting with Stoklosa and here's what we covered:

- Title name ideas (Basically solidified that it would be "trial 143")

- How to structure both of my trailers differently: One with genre, one with character

-My filming location

-I gave her a few videos I watched on structuring trailers that I really enjoyed

Lately I've been feeling like I'm at a standstill which is always annoying. I have everything like the side pieces: music, font, name, actress, sorted out but I really need to to my shot list. That's my first major thing moving forward so I really want to plan that out. A big issue is that I normally have a vision in my head and I don't write it down so by the time I get to actually filming or doing something it could take longer than it actually should. Stoklosa told me that this is a bad habit I need to break because it makes it stressful for filming day and it makes it hard for people to work with me, which is never a good thing.

Last night I decided to research my own case study: Hypnotic (2022). It's one of the only recent movies that has anything to do with hypnosis and I thought I could use some inspiration from that film to create my mood. To be honest the film was terrible and I left the viewing experience with very few things. It also made me realize that it is pretty difficult to play with this idea of mind distortion. Something that I did really like and I want to incorporate in my film is the repetition of words and the importance of light throughout. Hypnosis in general is performed through mental images, suggestions and the blinking of light. I want to use this because it will be visually appealing and will incorporate one of the core stereotypes of hypnosis. The hard thing about a trailer is eluding the plot and giving a sense of the movie without making any spoilers at all.