Auditory experience

Through this film, we are mostly focused on the visual, more than the auditory experience. We believe that the picture the audience sees on the screen will have a bigger impact on the viewer than the sound. We still, however, would like to incorporate different styles of music and harsh sounds that will engage the audience more within the plot. These include, yet are not limited to, deep strings and eerie music. The music is a bit tricky however because we do want to make the film opening as realistic as possible. Having a non-diegetic sound would affect the viewers credibility with the opening. On the other hand, not having music might bore the audience and have them less focused on the visuals being shown on screen.

For these reasons, we have tried to find the best music possible for this specific opening. One that is not too crazy and unrealistic, however more for one that goes along with the tempo of the film and the overall emotions of it. We found music on this website, which has royalty-free sound, giving us the ability to play it on our own opening without having to pay.  Through this we have found options to the sound we might use. The problem is that since we haven't filmed yet, we continue to find problems putting the right music to the correct scene. Another problem is that the music continues to feel unrealistic for the serious awareness we are trying to raise about sex-trafficking. We have to wait until we can correctly film and edit to choose the correct music.

Problems with casting!

Quick update!

Instead of finding real drama club kids from our school, we decided to find the most real people we could find. These would be those who don't dramatize things, we wanted to someone to feel the eerie and uncomfortable events that sex-trafficking victims feel like in order to get raw emotions and responses from them. For this reason, our friends, with no acting experience will be taking part in this project. We also have Fabiana's younger sister Valeria to play the role of the young girl, as she is only nine and Latina. This gives us the advantage of showing that age is just a number in this monopoly and sadly the ones who are sold the quickest. The age gap would be shown through the other members of the cast such as Sabrina, a 20-year-old, white college student who will be the oldest. The different race also gives audinece members more of a difference when it comes to these two actors.

We wanted all our girls to be different, for this reason, we have selected all races. From African American, White, Latino, to Asian. This will better diversify our cast and create a more authentic peace. The whole point is to create the most realistic opening as possible and this, wituhout a doubt is the way to do it. One question I received from my peers was how we were going to represent the social classes. In this case, once the girls are in the room it will extremely difficult to demonstrate considering they are in the same clothes. For this, the main charayer, who will be played by me, will give off the impression of being in the upper class. This is meant to show that any girl can be affected, no matter the social class. Through small dialogue, this impression will also be delivered.


This is Valeria and Sabrina. It is clearly seen that they are completely opposite, yet in the same position.

Casting!

Actors are an essential part of any film, as they are the ones who bring the idea to life. For our project, we need people who are dramatic. Who's more dramatic then teenagers with raging hormones. Better yet, actual high school drama club teens themselves! When casting, we are looking for the most vulnerable faces, the ones who look innocent to danger. The reason for this is because in the opening we want to show how vulnerable one must become when going through this process. We want to show that the most innocent souls become trapped in the game of monopoly.

The first thing we need to think about is how much we want to diversify the cast. I believe that it is extremely essential that we do this because we want to accurately represent that anyone can be affected by the dangers of sex-trafficking We want to accurately represent that any age, sex, color, race, or religion is open to sex-trafficking. For this reason, we are looking for all races and ages to help us represent this film accurately. It is extremely deceiving if we only place certain ages or a certain race to be sex-traffic because it will not show how it happens in any part of the world to any women. 

Mise-en-scene elements

Sadly, since we are not using out the first location, and must film in our garage, we must come up with creative ideas to make our new location look and feel as realistic possible. Through our set, we want to make the audience as uncomfortable as the girls on screen. The purpose of this is to create a sense of discomfort and trauma that sex-trafficking victims go through daily. To create the most realistic film we must place specific items in the set that will capture the audience's attention yet not draw too much attention away from the central plot of the opening.

Small elements are always needed, this can come from the polaroid images we are placing on the walls to the dirty floor and unsanitary looking environment. Everything is essential when placing it on screen, as everything serves a purpose for its placements. For example, polaroids. Their purpose is to show to the audience the number of girls that have passed by those doors before, which in this case we want to be a multitude. We want to give the audience an idea that sex trafficking is not a one time job, it is constant maneuvering of girls from one location to another in order to gain financial success. The dirty floors will show the little care and respect the sequesters give to the girls. The way they get full of dirt by simply touching the location is how we want to show how they are treated as objects rather than women. On the floor, we would also like to include broken dolls and markers, giving the audience the thought of smaller children passing by through that environment. Without a doubt, bugs and roaches will be shown on the girls, further implanting the unsanitary conditions.

In this location, we would also like to place a white background and an automatic printer. The reason for this is to show how sex-trafficking victims must "pose" for their own selling photo. The automatic printer will be used to show the printing of the fake passports and ID's along with the phots of the girls they place on the walls. These photos will be of girls of all different sizes, shapes, colors, and ages to show the diversity in between the girls and give the accurate representation that anyone can be sex-trafficked.  The photos placed on the wall will have a red X placed on top of them representing the "sold" ones. Through this, we would like that the shape of the ones covered in red marker spell out 1% to show the introduction of the opening. The red X also represents the #enditmovent for slavery. Another color coordination we will use is with blue, which is the color for sex-trafficking awareness. We would like to represent this through small items in the room of the color blue that pop out to the audience.


These are visual representations of how we would like the set to look:

Issue with our location

The last location we found at the abandoned rehabilitation center was absolutely perfect! It had all the right necessities for the creepy vibe we were looking for and it completely captured the essence of the film opening. Turns out, however, that it is completely illegal! The thought of this really never crossed our minds due to the open gates, yet we wanted to continue the eerie feelings that building proposed. How would we do this, well simple, we have to convert one of our garages to replicate the picture that we took of the infrastructure. We would use footage of an abandoned warehouse on the outside to set the space and have the audience believe that we're at that actual location. A lot of productions actually do this in fact, they film the outside of locations and set up the actual filming on a stage. An example of this could be Lab Rats the Disney Channel show or the famous Friends.

Doing this will improve our credibility and add more essence to the film opening. It will create the feeling that we all wanted to produce and bring these girls harsh stories to life. Our whole purpose for this opening is to create the most realistic representations as possible, which is why showing the outside of a building will help in representing the stories as clearly. Here are the following examples of T.V shows using the same strategy, where they use the footage of the outside of a location even though they aren't using it.


This is the show Lab Rats:
Inside (set):

Outside (what they would show):

This is the show Friends: 

Inside (set) :

Outside (what they would show): 

Location Hunting!

Today's blog will be a little different. Instead of documenting the whole process through text, we believe taking you through the process of location hunting visually, will be the best form of explaining what we saw. It is currently Sunday, and we all have met up to talk about some of our ideas and to go location scouting. We have already come up with places where to shoot our film opening, which you can see in my previous blog, and are extremely excited to actually go out today and see it in person. Our first location was the Broward Correctional Institution, we believed this was the perfect place to film the opening because of it's eerie feeling and history. On our way there, we were confident that is was the place. The images online were exactly what we were looking for and the scary feeling was shown through the screen, which is exactly what we wanted.  When we got there, however, it was the complete opposite. It was renovated into a beautiful building, which was everything but scary. We then went onto plan B which was a psychiatric ward and rehabilitation center. This place was also abandoned and way creepier then we all thought. Just looking at it gave us goosebumps and going inside was terrifying. It's the perfect location to shoot and we are so excited to do so there.

HERE'S OUR FUN ADVENTURE!

MORE RESEARCH!

We want to represent the reality of sex-trafficking as much as possible, and in order to do that we must keep on researching on location, process and stay away from the stereotypical ideas. Currently, our most important aspect right now is to find the perfect location to film. We have multiple pieces but are planning to only use two sets to complete the final project. These sets will happen when the main character is taken out of the van and where the girls are kept during the sex-trafficking process. Finding the right locations will accurately represent the awareness we are trying to create around the harm and dangers of sex-trafficking. This is why it is extremely important that we do as much research as possible to find the most accurate representation.

Our first location, which is where the main character will be put into the van, should be an isolated place. The reason why we were looking into isolated places was that we did not want there to be any speculations or questions that she could've screamed or called out for help while she was going through this. The isolation in this specific scene is also meant to the create symbolism in the fact that these girls are isolated from the reality of the world when they are being sex-trafficked, and even though they might not be alone, they feel alone. We can have the audience interpret it many different ways, from having them believe she is surrounded by people, yet unheard, considering that when it comes to these situations most people turn the other way. Or they can interpret it is as if she is actually alone and having her away from others is what caught the attention of the others due to her vulnerability. For this location, we can use a park or an empty parking lot. We don't want to show the kidnapping part of it, but mostly show the van driving off and the girl drugged inside of it. We were thinking of places such as Vista View Park, which is a very wide and open space or the parking lot of a Walmart or target at night, which is extremely large and empty at night. 

Our next location is where the girls are kept during the process of selling. This location must bring an eerie feeling to the audience and have them notice as quickly as possible why the girls are there in the first place. To do this, we were looking at abandoned places near our location. We found that there is an abandoned prison, which was called the Broward Correctional Institution, which is said to be one of the spookiest abandoned places in South Florida. The pictures we found online are exactly what we are looking for and we believe it accurately represents what we want to show in our film opening. We also found a plan B which would be at an abandoned psychiatric ward. This idea was given to us by one of Amanda's friends which we will look into if our first location does not work out. This eerie feeling must be represented by the location in which the girls are kept in. The fact that it is abandoned is what will create a bigger feeling of isolation from the real world the girls feel that they are in.

Recommendations!

In order to have the best project ever we need to hear the constructive criticism of others. In class today, we were able to do that by meeting with different groups and their project, discussing new ideas or what could be approved upon in the film opening. This was an extremely effective method considering that each one of us came out of it with great new ideas that were we would like to implement into our final project. In order to do this, we would explain to other groups our overall ideas for the film opening and how we would like to execute every idea into the final project. The group would then first come up with any constructive criticism of what not to do or mention the ideas that stuck the least. They would also come up with great ideas that could possibly be implemented in the final project. The more minds coming together means the more ideas that are going to be produced, and the more ideas are going to be implemented. 

Since we all met separately with different groups, we came together and talked about the information we gained from our meetings. The only ideas my group did not find helpful, was the recommendation to start the film opening with the battery level at 20%. We agreed that this would make the video look less realistic considering that a phone with that much charge does not lose all of the battery that quickly enough to show the 1% in the film opening.  I was given the idea to have the photos of the girls in the film opening spell out 1%. That way the film opening title would be shown in a more creative way rather than the average text on a video format that is usually seen. We agreed collectively that it was a great idea and that executing that would make the project way more original and stand out from the competition. One idea that we all loved was to correlate the percentage battery on the main character's phone, starting at 5%, to the five stages of grief she is feeling. This idea is for sure going to create more substance to the opening and going to make our final project stand out from the others.


The first stage we want to show is denial. When the character reaches the warehouse at five percent, she is in denial that this is happening and that she is in actual reality. Not wanting to believe her current situation, she is shown through the battery percentage, stressing and extremely scared over what she is going through that she can't believe it.
The second stage is anger, we will show the character with 4% begin to get aggressive with her abusers and try to find ways to escape in a violent manner.
Later on, we will use the third phase in grief which is bargaining, at 3%, to show how these girls are willing to give up anything to go back to their regular lives and leave their current situation. It could from bargaining sexual favors to physical labor.
Then, the fourth phase which is, depression we would want to show at 2%. The saddened main character will lose all hope is finding a way out and it will be accurately portrayed throughout the opening.
The last phase we do not want to reach, considering that it is the film opening, is acceptance. It is to be inferred that the acceptance phase would come when the character reaches the one percent on her phone.

Searching for answers

In order to accurately represent the harsh reality of sex-trafficking, we must conduct research to find specific information. This includes the whole process from beginning to end, without getting my parents worried about my search history of course. In this website, it states that in order to gain greater control over the victim, they move them to an unknown location. For this reason, we want to include the transportation and moving of location aspect in the film. It also states that the exploitation frequently begins at the place of destination, which is why we need to include the process of selling the girls. This includes the creation of fake passports, taking their pictures, and the uploading of their "profile" on the black market. Including aspects in the opening about violence towards the main character should be heavily focused on as well, considering that "in order to ensure submission, obedience, and control over the victim, traffickers use violence, blackmail, and intimidation." When going through the initial process of kidnapping an individual, they also use drugs to prevent resistance from the girls. Knowing about specific information about the initial process is a great way of creating the most realistic opening as possible. 


Another way to create awareness about sex trafficking is by using well-known references and symbols that represent sex-trafficking awareness. Through research, it was found that the color blue does exactly that. For this reason, we want to use color-psychology to have the audience notice that this color is related to sex-trafficking. By using it throughout the scenes, we will create this correlation in the audience's mind. One other important facts about sex-trafficking awareness that we found was that the National Human Trafficking Awareness is observed every year on January 11. We would love to set the film opening on this day and have multiple shots showing the date so it is obvious to the audience that this day has an important meaning for the cause. Lastly, the #enditmovement is against slavery, a red X is placed in the hands of the supporters of the movement. In this film opening, we want to place the red X in a visible location, catching the audience's attention directly. Finding these elements are extremely important considering that the overall theme of the film opening is creating awareness for sex-trafficking.

       

Storyboard Creating!

On homework day, A.K.A Sunday, we decided to meet up and create the storyboard for 1%. It was the first time my group met outside of school and honestly, the initial sight of them had me quite shocked. We came prepared with flashcards, pencils, class notes, and a whole lot of imagination to make this film opening look spectacular. For some reason, however, we found extremely critical to get the drawings somewhat decent looking, and considering the fact that none of us are Vango, it didn't really go so great. We got the hang of drawing a straight line for our stick figures and everything was set. The tricky part of working in a team is all the different thoughts coming out at one time. What was even harder was choosing which one worked the best. Eventually, at one point, we all had to hop off our the high horse egos and accept that there were way better ideas than our own. The beginning of the process was hard, then after however, our ideas began to be cohesive and would work for hand in hand with the others. Instead of disregarding ideas completely, we began to bounce ideas off each other.

The overall storyboard came out to be a success! We worked non-stop and created the perfect film opening idea that without a doubt will raise awareness about sex-trafficking. We want to expose the beginning process of trafficking after the kidnapping, and I believe we did that very well. We researched the creation of fake passports made to transport the victims from one country to next and how these girls are placed in the black market along for what they are sold for. This information will help us accurately represent what happens in these crimes and make sure that justice is found. We also looked into the misc-en-scene elements that we could place in the opening film, this will help more accurately represent the settings these girls are in and have the audience capture the atmosphere of the plot. After extensive research, we found that sex-trafficking victims were found in exposing clothing and in very unknown locations. This video shows that sex-trafficking could even be found in places near us and we just don't notice.

Work in progress:

Selfie Break:












Finished product:

What is 1% about?

Our initial idea for the 1% film opening was to show a young girl go through the beginning process of sex trafficking, where she has found a way to sneak her cell phone in with her, which is losing battery as the film progresses, eventually reaching to the 1%.  The importance of this film opening is not the phone battery, as that is just a symbolic representation showing how time is running out to save these girls who are forced into sex-trafficking. It is to raise awareness about the mental and physical damage these girls go through when having to live through the trafficking.  Since this generation is so invested in their phones, they would know the feeling of running out of battery when they really need it. The anxiety of not knowing when the phone will run out is what will have the audience hooked on the opening. Their increase of curiosity will have them begging for answers and their instant connection to the main character because she is relatable, will create a want for the film.

During this process, we are planning to show everything the media is covering from the consumers. We believe it is the only way to catch them off guard and have them become surprised about the harsh reality that they are censored from. It is the only way to create awareness, the more people that understand the cause, the more they will fight for it. We will show the exact moment she is entering the trafficking, covering all the important aspects that most people don't think of. For example, the creation of fake passports, entering into the database, the initial feelings and reactions of the girls, and those who work behind the scenes of these horrific situations. The main character will begin the film opening with five percent on her phone, slowly decreasing as each step happens. We will end the opening exactly when she has two percent. We want to do this so the audience can infer that the film is not over since her phone has not yet reached one percent. This will once again keep the element of wonder and curiosity
that will have them hooked on the film and
wanting to know more.

WE HAVE AN IDEA!

Coming up with an idea was way harder then we all would've imagined. Tuesday morning, straight out of bed, in our first class of the day, an idea clicked in between all of us. I don't know if it was because of the lack of sleep or the overdose on double-shot expressos, but we all simultaneously connected in our idea.

1% was created! Now, the great part about this film title is that it can be interpreted in multiple ways and the only way to find out what the film is about is to sit down and watch it. Since you have the privilege of reading my blog, however, I must tell you that this film opening is surrounded by the overall topic of sex-trafficking. When my group members did their separate research, they all looked for something unspoken to the public yet critical in our existence. Sex-trafficking is just one of the many sad truths that the media has not shined a light on to create awareness. Through our film opening, we hope to create this awareness and expose to the people that this is the reality we live in and we must come together to fight against these horrific acts.

Sex trafficking comes in many forms. Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, including sexual slavery. The reality is that 81% of them are trapped in forced labor, 25% of them are children, 75% are women and girls. It is extremely saddening to see those numbers and the real fact that is heartbreaking is that there is barely any exposure about this in the media. This is because others would rather see a film about superheroes then girls going through horrible pain. The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 40.3 million victims of human trafficking globally and sadly the number of human trafficking cases that Polaris learns about in the U.S. increases every year as shown by this review sheet made in 2017.

Creating process! 

Researching Openings!

The best way to create a stunning opening is to watch award-winning openings for themselves.
We all decided to each watch four introductions in our genre, to find a concurring similarity in between all of them. We want to do this to also to find the best ways to place our credits during the openings. My first opening was actually scary, two minutes of pure aghast just in an opening. The opening of Se7en was for sure the vibe we want to go for in our project. The low-key lighting in combination with the creepy, goosebump feeling. The titles were shown throughout the whole opening and that's what we would like to present in our opening so it doesn't play necessarily like a trailer yet ore like a film opening.

For our opening, we want to create a setting that entices the audience to keep on watching, yet has them somewhat nervous to look at the screen. The feeling of surprise and anxiety while watching the opening of a movie starts the film off on the right foot. It gives the audience a sense of emotion that they would like to feel throughout the whole film. I was searching for ways to create the perfect opening in matters of grabbing the audience's attention and I ran into this website. It explains all the elements that we were looking for, the surprise, the involvement, the cognitive dissonance.  I also found this website which connected me with the idea of reaching the emotions of the audience. This is in order to have them feel an emotional connection to the character. When the audience creates an emotional connection to the main character they begin to feel the characters emotions and place themselves in the situation the character is going through. The reason for its importance is that throughout the film the audience will be more engaged and more interested in the plot. If the character they're connected to feels strongly for something they will too. They will also most likely watch all the way to the end of the film to make sure that the character reaches his/her wanted result.

Project Scheduling

 

The last thing we want to do is procrastinate on this project, which is why we want to have a timeline to divide all our tasks and spread it out evenly so we don't stress out about it on certain moments. If there is anyone who knows about procrastination its the queen herself, me. Honestly, I don't think my team can handle the last minute, stressful, no sleep, workload like I can, which is why building a schedule is our number two priority at the moment. Only I can go days without sleep to then hibernate on a weekend, it's kind of like a superpower if I do say so myself.
How could we do this we asked ourselves?

CREATING A TIMELINE!

"Project scheduling is important because it is an integral part of the project planning process. A project can not run without a project plan. Scheduling establishes the timelines, delivery, and availability of project resources, whether they be personal, inventory or capital."  as stated by BizFluent


We believe this at its entirety, without having preplanned thoughts, ideas, or scheduling information, when it comes to actually film, we will be backed up and take more time fixing it at the moment. 
The following image is of a timeline we want to replicate and how we want it to be. It is not only easy to look at it has all the information necessary for us to complete this project.


It will also help when it comes to our actors, as they are also informed about what we are doing and when.


This example is of one timeline that is extremely simple yet understandable. Following this type of timeline is what we want to reciprocate.


We are currently making a calendar to plan out exactly when we want our things done:

Our main goals are to have
-The storyboard done by March 8th
-Begin filming by March 12th

We will meet this weekend and have officially set 16 days to finish mark, allowing us to have time to fix any mistakes and make our project perfect.

Creating the Story!

When wanting to create a storyboard we also noticed that we weren't completely set on our ideas and that in order to create the perfect opening we must have everything in order in to make a storyboard that makes sense.

We did, however, look into how to create a storyboard and found tips and tricks to creating an efficient one. In this picture, it is visible that every movement is drawn out to facilitate the shooting process.



We also went into this website which had extremely helpful tips on how to create the perfect storyboard for beginners like us. The most important tip I saw was to create a mind map, which would help us a lot considering we are still deciding what we want to make our film opening to be about. It is essential that we all agree on a film opening as soon as possible to come together and start shooting, giving us enough time, in the end, to fix any mistakes and make the final project perfect. 

On Hubshot it states "The storyboard is a very important part of the pre-production process because it clearly conveys how the story will flow, as you can see how your shots work together. ... Early on in the production process, they are necessary to tell the story and communicate the concept." 

We believe this to be 100% true and are trying to follow their belief as we don't want to be struggling and fighting against the clock at the last moment with our project. 

Building!

Since our story is somewhat complete and we believe that we want to continue on the thriller/drama genre, we must come together to create a scheduled story for how we want it to be presented on screen. My initial idea was to follow these and create an outline as to what we want to be presented on screen.

When it comes to editing, fast cuts and transitions will create the thriller element we are looking for.

In the cinematography department, our initial theme was to have a lot of fast pace movement and directing that have the audience looking from one side of the screen to other. Constantly switching their eye movement to keep them alert during the opening.

We have already established that it will be dark lighting, trashy-looking costumes, a flickering lights vibe that will keep the audience in their thriller state of mind. 

The auditory experience has to be as good as the visual experience, and that is why we are going to create the majority of the sounds by ourselves to get perfect audio in our opening. 

When it comes to the titles and graphics we want to place them in a noticeable place which also doesn't interfere with the idea of the opening.  Something like this...