Almost there !!

Hi everyone!! I feel so happy because we're almost done with this project! Though it wasn't our original idea, I'm very pleased with how it is turning our and I'm proud of the effort my group members and I put in to create this piece. As of now, we are finalizing the editing and finding the music. We had originally sent an email to Universal Music Group, but we no longer needed the rights for the song as we had changed our minds. So we decided to look for loyalty-free music online and see if anything matched our vision. After a lot of searching, we were able to find Revelations by Tristan Barton. This song really went along with the vibe we were searching for, so we were super excited to have found it. We will be using this song for the dream portion of the scene, so we had to find something that had a dreamy feel to it and felt almost ethereal. This is pretty much the only thing we had left to do other than some small editing details. I can't wait to show you all the finished product in just a couple days!!

Some Updates !

Hi everyone. So after filming came the process of actually going through footage. I'm overall pretty happy with how everything turned out. I wish I could have used some more equipment to make it look more visually appealing and of a higher caliber, but I didn't have access to too much due to the virus. Also, in our original idea, I wasn't in the film, and for good reason; I am not an actress. Obviously we were never planning on hiring any professionals, but we were going to have people who were more comfortable in front of the camera. I think I did okay, but I hate seeing myself on screen. I think I cringe in every part that I am in.

As of now, I'm currently working on ideas for my CCR and figuring out how I can make it interesting. I have a couple ideas but I don't know if I will have time or the resources to execute it. I think I might have some random inanimate objects interview me if my other ideas don't work. Currently having a mental block though. It might be the fact that I have no concept of time anymore nor a sleep schedule due to being stuck in my house over three weeks. Who knows? Happy blogging!

FILMING !

Hi everybody !! Today was a great day. My group finally was able to film. Though we were unable to film together, both Val and I were able to get our separate footage. I don't know about her, but filming was quite interesting, at least for me.
My brother was the camera man for the majority of my footage, which was nice considering he's a film major. While I directed all the shots, it was super helpful to have some collaboration and advice from someone who's studied this more in depth than I have. We were planning on shooting with my Nikon camera, but since Val was unable to get a camera too, I ended up using my iPhone XR camera to shoot, which is still good quality.
Shooting outside at night was kind of hard with this and didn't have as nice of a visual effect as I could have hoped, but its okay. It was also a little hard considering I was shooting a scene with my dog, who decided not to take it seriously and just lay on the floor instead of acting. It was kind of rude of her but I have decided to forgive her because not everyone is born with natural talent and she is also a dog.

My parents were fortunately very willing to do whatever I asked, however it seems I overestimated my dad's acting abilities. Getting him to say a couple a lines proved to be a challenge due to his accent, but after about one million takes, it sounded good. Also I found out my mom can cry on demand? It could have been useful except for the fact that she refused to cry on camera, so I don't really know why she even showed me that trick, it's cruel. I literally begged her to but she was being super stubborn so currently a little mad at her but it's okay.

The scene shot in my bedroom was super frustrating, I won't lie. When the camera is only on me, I can't help but laugh. Also we wanted to do a trick with lights flickering, but the lights in my room don't flicker fast enough so it just looked really dumb. I also hit my head like twice while trying to fall back on my bed so I might have a concussion but I will keep you all posted.

I don't want to share any stills of the footage so you are all surprised later. ;-) Now all we have left to do is to edit, tweak some things and work on our blogs and CCR. I feel much more relieved now. Stay safe !

A STAR-STUDDED CAST!!

Hi everyone ! So dealing with this whole filming issue has been kind of a mess, but we've worked a lot out. Due to the virus and social distancing, we have to film separately. But coming from a family that studied film and media, my parents had no problem stepping up and offering their help with this. A portion of the film will be filmed in my neighborhood/house, and a portion will be filmed in Val's neighborhood. While it isn't ideal to film separately, we have no other choice and are going to work together to make it as seamless and cohesive as possible. We've figured out our actors:

KALI Starring:

Valerie Tiralongo as Kali

Julieta Argiro (I'm an insanely talented actress, which you don't have to even take my word for. Just ask any of my classmates what they thought of my inspiring performance as a ultra-feminist murderer in a previous project) as Aria Costales

Nacho Argiro as Lorenzo Costales

Macarena Leon as Guilia Costales

Representation !

Hi blog ! Hope everyone is doing well. Today I'm going to discuss representation in our film opening. While a lot of this won't really be portrayed in the 2 minutes we present, my group and I still thought it was important that we thought these things out to create a better opening.

The family in our film, the Costales, are Hispanic-Italian. While the film industry works to represent this group more every day, they are still a minority and vastly underrepresented. Because we are working with the subject of money laundering and framing, we wanted to represent this group because they are typically presented in film in that type of manner. However, in our film, they are innocent. Aria's father is Venezuelan and her mother is Italian. They both speak Spanish and keep both their Hispanic and Italian heritage present in the family. The family is wealthy and successful, but we wanted to make Aria's mother a powerful businesswoman, not just a rich lady who earns all her money from her husband. We wanted her to have a real Cher moment.

We are also representing Hindu culture through the goddess in our film, Kali. Known as the Divine Mother, she is a mother figure to our main character Aria. She is also recognized as the destroyer of all evil things, and a divine protector, so her character in our film works to save Aria from the dangers her family will face.

New Characters!!

Hey everybody ! So with out new film, we needed to come up with new characters so that we could make sure to have them established as well as possible to the audience within the first two minutes during our opening. Here they are:

Aria Costales:

• Main character
• Only child
• Shy, reserved, keeps to herself
• Will do anything to save her family

Kali:

• Goddess
• Purpose in the story is to help Aria
• Those devoted to her see her as a mother figure
• Guides Aria like a mother ^

Lorenzo Costales:

• Aria's dad
• Businessman
• Travels a lot for work
• Though he is absent a lot, he cares a lot for his family

Giulia Costales:

• Aria's mom
• Businesswoman
• Cares for her family but is always working

Changes!

Hello to my all fans. Happy quarantining! So we have some big changes coming to our story!! An entirely new plot!! How exciting and mentally exhausting to keep up with!!

So, here's some of the concepts involved in our new movie opening:

• A goddess who only appears whenever our main female character gets sleep paralysis
• A girl who's family is in deep danger

The goddess represents a mother figure in our film. She is going to help our main character and guide her throughout the story, mainly through the conflict her family will be facing. We want the goddess to only appear to our main character during sleep paralysis episodes. This new concept is much easier as it can all be filmed at home. We still need to figure out who will be playing who, as none of my group members can leave their houses (PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING PLEASE!!) But for now this is a lot of new information, so we have to develop our characters, a clear view of what we will include in the story, script, etc. It'll be okay though, I'm actually really excited about this!