Black Hat Final Project

Click here to see film opening.

Black Hat CCR

Click here to see Black Hat CCR.

Reflection

Hi! My name is Julia Fuentes and I worked with Amanda Cortex to create the film opening “Black Hat”. Black hat follows the events of how an innocent citizen gets a virus implanted in their brain. This film falls into both the horror and thriller genre and uses conventions of both to its advantage. One of the most prominent conventions is the use of lighting. Throughout the opening, it is evident that lighting is going to help shape the events that are about to unfold. This is often used in horror movies before a jump scare or in thrillers to add suspense. We used this convention to add suspense and urge the viewer to almost try to look for what could be past the darkness. Another genre convention used was the sense of isolation. There are only 2 people in the film- the hacker and the innocent person and they never directly interact or have a conversation. The opening also lacks music or sounds of others making the viewer aware that the main character is in fact alone. The last convention i’m going to discuss is mise en scene or setting. A huge part of my inspiration for Black hat was colors. My living room happened to really nicely align with what my partner and I were going for. This is where we decided to break conventions and use a brighter setting to contrast with the darker tone of the film. This allows the viewer to believe that nothing as bad as what’s going to happen, can happen in a place as nice as this. Our target audience is between the ages of 13-65. with the target audience being so broad we must use several types of methods to engage with audiences. Social media will definitely help spread the word with the younger crowd and radio commercials will help with the adults since adults often listen to the radio in the car. In addition there will be coming soon signs outside theatres and strategically places billboards and stickers with an ominous QR code which will lead future audiences to the film’s website. I would choose Lionsgate to distribute with since they have distributed many other hit films. This project furthered my understanding of production by: helping my production develop, taught me how to use editing softwares like premier pro and photoshop, taught me how to properly film, taught me the importance of shots and angles and how to manage time.

Spring Break!

As Spring Break comes up don't think we have anything less than a ton of work to do! The only thing harder than getting 4 teenage girls schedule's to line up is editing. It will be a...task. With both me and partner away for spring break we have a lot to complete but we have 1 more class period before where I'm hoping we can really get the virus and emergency broadcast finished (remember that?). Next week I will be uploading an outline for both the script and the editing process (Amanda look back in like 3 days...maybe...) My biggest concern is the loss of service I have for a few days over the break but my partner and I have done a fantastic job collaborating and getting things done when we are together. When we're not...we'll find out next week blog.

Set and Lighting

I am kicking myself for not getting more pictures of lighting because while our methods of using handheld and phone flashlights were unconventional, it definitely got the job done. Flashlights on iPhone had an update where you can control the brightness level which was super useful and made it really easy to do our job. And I did end up having single light sources as said in a previous post which was a big win for me.

The whole premise of our opening is that our victim inherits the virus because she doesn't hear the emergency broadcast warning her to shut off her tv. We wanted to have her get up and get food but my kitchen is directly behind my living room (check drive link in filming post). So we had to use my laundry room door and pretend that it led to my kitchen. Figuring out how to do the transitions between this was challenging but, as i said before, the outcome will be well worth the struggle. Who has a door leading to their kitchen? I don't know but for some reason it works in the world in the film.

We also couldn't make a set in my garage but luckily my living room did a pretty good job matching up to my desired set in my previous blogs. I talked a lot about color which I did want to emphasize which I did in strategically placing lights to do so. Maybe it was my unconscious pulling from what's around me or maybe it was just pure luck. 

The Virus (dun dun dun)

In my previous posts it was originally stated that the hacker was not going to be seen and that the hacker would be alluded too but never shown on screen. This all changed once my partner and I really started thinking how to make this the best project possible.

I drew inspiration from one of my favorite TV shows of all time, Chuck. He has this virus in his head and the TV show often uses visuals to show this. I took to youtube and found this video who's purpose is to replicate the visuals in this video. My partner is an extremely good editor and did a fantastic job replicating the "flash" shown above. Creating something like this was a really cool experience and I'm definitely excited to see how she configures the virus in its entirety. 

Since the virus was not done in time to put on the tv itself for filming, we used a green screen which i uploaded a picture of on the filming post. This posed to be a small inconvenience at first but we can do a lot more of manipulating it and making sure our virus is visible. All in all, we made up for our time management problems and are back on track where we need to be.

WE FILMED

So FINALLY, on Sunday, we filmed our opening. It was such a relief to get it done so we could start editing and producing the final project. I'll be inserting pictures at the bottom that I took during filming but so far my partner and I are extremely excited with what we did and everything is coming together really nicely. Some changes were made which I will address in the upcoming posts but besides that we are officially in post!Click here to see the pictures!

Final post of pre-production

Hopefully, this is my final post of research and pre-production. I would love to start filming or at least planning to start filming since everything is kind of up in the air right now. The closer it gets to the deadline, the more ideas I have to scrap and simplify. I am almost finished creating a final outline which will be drastically different than the one I posted but will hopefully include the same aspects. It's surprisingly really hard to find an actor even when its a non speaking role but my next post will be a script which should be similar to A Quiet Place since it will have little to no dialogue. I am very much looking forward to going over that script and figuring out how they brought everything together so I can replicate it the best I can

Lighting

Although I am excited to play around with lighting I'm a little confused om how it works when being applied to film. This video provided insight to how lighting in horror films can be created. I still haven't 100% decided if I'm going the horror route or thriller route. Although differences are subtle, there are differences nonetheless which my partner and I must acknowledge. Lighting is key in this since horror lighting seems to be darker  where as the thrill in thriller tend to be in actions even though lighting is an important aspect to. I would like to reference my first blog post about colors where I touched on lighting and how I want the light to highlight colors and mood. This is still my plan but I want to reiterate that I would like my lighting to come from one source or appear to. This screenshot from Lights Out does do a good job in using one light source. I don't expect the entire film to be lit by solely one light but I would like for it to be used since it adds the element of suspense. In addition, I like how the audience can only see whats illuminated by the light and how nothing can be seen behind. This is a theme I would like to explore at some point while filming this opening.

Colors (again)

I totally forgot that I follow this awesome Instagram account which can be found at instagram.com/colorpalette.cinema and posts color palettes from films. I scrolled through and found a few more examples of how I want to use color. 

The Exorcist (1973)

 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

 Drive (2011)

This will be my last post on color, I promise, I just love how color can affect a film and how it can affect human's psychologically. I am looking forward to how I can apply my understanding of color to my film opening.  

Outline

This post is VERY long overdue but here is a picture of my outline. I actually came up with this idea not too long before the I started  the foundation portfolio but, refrained from uploading it until I felt I had a solid background of information and research (it wont let me turn it; I'm sorry!)

This original outline will most likely be modified due to time and budget but this is a loose outline. This film was heavily inspired by Bird Box. Now before you ask me if there was any more basic blockbuster movie I could have chosen; hear me out. I found the concept extremely interesting but hated (really, really hated) how the culprit was a demon or whatever it was. It got me brainstorming and the concept that a hacker hacked into TV networks popped into my head and I decided to run with it. I was also partly inspired by V from V for Vendetta for the hacker just with a little less emphasis on anarchy. Unfortunately, I don't think we will end up meeting our hacker but this concept definitely something I am interested in exploring and possibly turning into a short film. 

Quick Update

I have not met with my partner in a little too long and that's making me super anxious. We both have been super busy and we had to cancel our day for filming which also really concerns me. I have a bad feeling the idea will have to be drastically simplified but I'm going to make sure the vision and meaning behind the vision stays. Some new movies/TV shows that have inspired me are Marvel's Runaways in terms of character and character study,

Bates Motel for set design,

and Hereditary for set and lighting.

Colors

In this blog post is to expand on the color pallet that I envision for the film is similar to the palette that was seen in Argo. 
This is because the mood of the film is very dark and dreary. 

The Exorcist was another film that I drew inspiration from because besides the girl in the bed, the mood of the scene can be drawn from the colors. 

Lighting is something I quickly want to address as well before I go more in depth in my next post; I do like the idea of a dimly lit atmosphere with a central point where light comes from. I think this can really accentuate colors which is not the main purpose of the film but I really do like the concept of making color a prominent element. Although the colors aren't similar The Grand Budapest Hotel does an AMAZING job of incorporating color into the film.

 With the projected color palette complete the next aspect to figure out is lighting and finalizing concept.

Emergency Broadcast System (+other updates)

So I'm going to get this out of the way first and say I am getting a little bit nervous. Our filming schedules are not matching up and I can't use my garage to film anymore so our plan looks like it is going to take a little detour. I'm still optimistic though and I think everything will come together, just a little bit differently.

So the first thing I want to address is scene I really want included. From 1:45-1:56 in the trailer for Don't Be Afraid of The Dark (2011) is an element I want to use to build suspense. Instead of the title of the film and scenes happening in between, I want to prolong the time between and flip back and forth from the character to the Emergency Broadcast. I still have to create the broadcast but I would love for it to come out like this. The Purge broadcast is extremely popular and is extremely recognizable among horror fans.

Later this week I will be uploading a projected color pallet for the film which I do have a clear idea of; My one big issue with my project is:time and money. A lot of my ideas require money and a lot of time forcing me to do a horrible thing called scrapping the idea. As it gets closer and closer to actually filming, more and more ideas become undo able due to lack of resources. I am also behind on my blog because I've been working super hard on tech for the show Mamma Mia for my tech class (Come see Mamma Mia March 6-9 @ 7pm) which is leaving absolutely zero time for anything else but alas the show much go on and I'm now working double the time to complete everything on time. It's okay though since everything is falling apart but somehow coming together since when one aspect falls apart I think of 10 other ideas my partner and I can do instead. 

Back to the EBS in the film...I'll have more updates next post concerning the actual creating of it. My partner and I have not been communicating properly which is why we are still in the planning phase. Luckily, we are both on board with the same idea and our next step is execution and putting it all together. The original outline does have to be modified but with those changes I believe a better product will result. 

Design

Hey! So my first post of this week is going to be about the set design of our unnamed film. I have a really clear vision about what I want our set to look like. Unfortunately, no room that I have access too is similar enough. Our plan as of right now is to build the set in my garage which does not seem like an easy task but seems worth it. Clothing isn't as big as a concern as the set since our film is not in a fantasy world, the clothes don't have to be designed to fit a certain world. How the set is designed is extremely important since our film will have little to no dialogue. We will have to rely mostly on sound and light design which will be a challenge but will hopefully pay off in the end. The more I think about our idea the more challenging it seems to make the tv in the garage work and have our footage stream. On the design aspect this seems to be the biggest obstacle we have to overcome.  

Week 1 Post 2

Alright post 2 of the week! I Just wanna get this out of the way because I did mention in the last post that I had a partner and her name is Amanda Cortes. 

So in my last post I addressed concept and character, in this post I'll be going into genre and other similar fun stuff. I was thinking my film opening would be a thriller/horror combo. I would like to stay more on the thriller aspect of things but there is a little bit of horror in thriller. A really good example of that is Get Out which isn't traditional horror movie but its thriller aspects add the element of horror. I wish I could take reference from more thrillers but, I haven't seen that many. The main thing I want to do with my opening is to establish tone immediately. The Shining is the best example I can use. From its opening credits, it  establishes a sense that something is off. Even when everything was "normal" and basic interactions were being made, it  was very clear that something was wrong. Luckily, I think this will be one of the more achievable things that I will attempt to do. Sound editing will play a huge part (thank you Amanda for knowing how to edit really well) in creating an atmosphere which will be fun to play around with. 

Speaking of atmosphere, I am SUPER excited to design the set. Next to editing, I think setting is the most important thing. I'm thinking a small dark living room area with an older, small tv. Lighting will also be crucial so Amanda and I really got to start meeting up and figuring out how we are going to create everything. I have an exact movie/tv show scene in my head but I can't think of what it is. For now, just imagine what I described above. I wish I could send you a picture from my mind because the idea is so clear to me. 

Next week, I'll discuss with my partner my plans for the film so we can combine ours and then I'll blog about it. Hopefully if things turn out right, my vision will be clearly expressed. In addition, I will go more in depth about story because none of this really comes to life until the outline is read. 

See ya next week!

Week 1 Post 1

I'm just going to jump right into this so hopefully you guys read the intro page to learn a little more about me. The idea for my film opening came to me in bits and pieces. When I first saw Bird Box I thought the concept was really interesting but didn't like how characters got "infected" by looking at the demon (or whatever super natural being was in control of infecting people). I was thinking maybe a bug in a video game but eventually settled on a  hacker placing a virus on television networks. What the virus does, I haven't quite decided yet but the aspect of suicide is not the route I want to go down. A few ideas I have in mind would be the hacker is an anarchist like V in V for Vendetta with the intention to plant anarchist ideas in people's head for personal benefit. Unfortunately, I don't think I will get far enough to explain the intention of the message in the two minutes but, I think its a good idea for the opening to have a direction.

The main character is a super interesting and important thing that I have absolutely no idea in which direction I should go in. Actually thats not 100% true; I have some idea of who I want my main character to be. I'm torn between a college kid and an actual kid. I think the actual kid would provide the opening with a sense of innocence which would make the foreshadowed future more devastating. The college kid would be cool as well because of the lack of innocence and the ignorance which will have to be involved. If it   was up to me and I had the resources, I would definitely go with the  little kid. I just don't think I can find a good (most importantly cooperative) kid actor that I don't have to pay $100 an hour to. 

With my whole concept fully thought out, (you'll read it next week (sorry for the cliffhanger)) I think my next step is to start coordinating with my partner to begin to create a clear story board.  Until next post...

-JF

Intro

Hi! My name is Julia Fuentes and I am a junior at Cypress Bay High School. I chose this font because my dream is to become a screenwriter. I am looking forward for you to embark on this journey with me!