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.