Change of Plans

The next idea that would probably suit us the best is the idea labeled 'The Chef.'

Logline: A silent film about an upscale chef who feeds human meat to unknowing high-class restaurant patrons.  The film would be heavily reliant on visuals and probably include some themes about wealth inequality or something along the lines of that.

This idea requires an enormous amount of focus on mise-en-scène elements like shooting at a fancy restaurant and having a bunch of other equipment. This poses an enormous problem because it is extremely impractical to be able to get permission to film at a restaurant that will be associated with a film about cannibalism.

This has required us to switch up this idea. My partner came up with a new and improved idea:

Logline: A struggling mother resorts to feeding her children human meat she steals from a hospital.

The characters question their moral values and the lengths the mother will go to feed her kids.

Here is how the new plot would play out.

Meeting with teacher

I was absent the day my teacher went over learning how to write a screenplay. According to my partner, she went over really valuable information that helped her further develop out plot for the Lemonade Mules story, which seemed like the best option at that point.

This is the outline she came up with:

After meeting with our teacher, my partner decided to narrow down our choices of story to the Lemonade Mules and The Chef.  Our teacher offered a bit of advice on how to execute the plot and this the plot outline for the Lemonade Mules that my partner came up with.

She met with our teacher again to get some feedback on the plot, to which she had a lot of advice. She advised us to drop the whole drug dealer component to the story and focus on a dispute between the homeowner and honest kids just trying to sell lemonade. She said to focus on the difference in age between the kids and the homeowner.

She based this on the fact that we only have five minutes to tell this story, and adding all these layers to the story will make it an impractical feat. I completely disagree with this, but I was not there to defend my choices when coming up with the idea. Since there was no real compromise reached yet, we will most likely keep debating on how we might want to take this story. 

Old School Cool?

I watched a couple dozen short films these last couple of weeks to prepare for this project and noticed a really prominent trend in the short film medium: the 4:3 aspect ratio.

I did a little research on why exactly this antiquated aspect ratio is making a comeback and I discovered this:

Overuse of 2.35: When wider aspect ratios first became popular, they were extremely hard to accomplish because they require special lenses called anamorphic lenses. These lenses are a lot easier to come by nowadays and filmmakers have also been cheating their way into getting a 2.35 aspect ratio. There are now anamorphic filters that you can put on a non-anamorphic lens and some filmmakers just crop the top and bottom portions of the screen to fake the "cinematic look" associated wth the 2.35. This overuse has caused the aspect ratio to lose its power because it is no longer reserved for high-budget films.

Era of Nostalgia: A blogger from Medium.com, Ryan Hooper, argues that we live in an era where the concept of time does not exist. Because we now live through our devices, we lack a sense of a physical world and the only way we can feel any sense of comfort and safety is through physicality. This comes in many forms like adding grain to a digital film and using the 4:3 ratio. The academy ratio calls back to a time when movies were shot on actual film; when people and things existed in a physical world. It brings back nostalgia; a temporary feeling of joy and sadness triggered by memory. Our generation uses nostalgia as a way to cope with no longer feeling present or have a meaningful existence.

Still from "Brotherhood" an Oscar-nominated
short film shot on 16mm film in a 4:3 ratio

Intimacy: According to Noam Kroll, a filmmaker and blogger, he noticed that the 4:3 is the best way to frame a face close up. This makes perfect sense since our faces are quite circular. In fact, I would take it a step further and say it is the best way to frame people in general because it is the "tallest" aspect ratio out there, so the subject is never dominated by the landscape. This makes it a super effective tool for communicating emotions.

A wide aspect ratio cuts off a lot of detail on subject's face.

Face fits better into the frame in 1.33

I think I am going to make the film in a 4:3 ratio, unless the story we come up with works better with 2.35 or 16:9 (I hate 16:9), which is unlikely. I am actually really open to the idea of 

not sticking with any specific aspect ratio and trying something radical like changing the aspect ratio between scenes or while cutting between shots.

After doing this research I'm super interested in perhaps writing a film that touches on the idea of nostalgia and how that is a reflection of how our generation longs for connection to the real world and for a sense of intimacy.

Hooper, Ryan. “Constant Nostalgia: Celebrating the Physical in the Digital Age.” Medium, Medium, 10 Dec. 2019, medium.com/@ryhooper/constant-nostalgia-celebrating-the-physical-in-the-digital-age-fc38415df5ab.

Kroll, Noam KrollNoam. “Why The Old-School 4:3 Aspect Ratio Is Coming Back With A Vengeance Right Now.” Noam Kroll, 17 Sept. 2019, noamkroll.com/why-the-old-school-43-aspect-ratio-is-coming-back-with-a-vengeance-right-now/.

Brainstorming ideas

My partner and I met up at Starbucks for a lengthy discussion about what exactly we should make our short film about... we reached no conclusion.

Right now we have come up with a couple of pretty good ideas in different genres. Here are a few:


1. Lemonade Mules.   Genre: Crime
A middle-aged man notices two kids selling lemonade in front of his yard. He doesn't like that they have placed their stand in his home, so he offers to buy all their lemonade if they move somewhere else. The kids are adamant about not being able to move the lemonade stand and tell the man to mind his own business.

I got the idea for this after watching this episode of Shameless.

I'm not sure where it would go next, but basically the kids are being forced to deal drugs out of their lemonade stands and the man just got involved in violent gang activity by making the kids move.

2. The Book Club:   Genre: Comedy
This one is quite strange, but it's definitely my favorite idea. A group of male sex offenders find that the only place they can be with other people without feeling judged is in a book club they formed. One day, a female sex offender joins their club, which completely upsets the calm dynamics that other members previously had.

The film touches on very serious themes, but tells it in a humorous way. My partner very understandably does not want to follow through with making this film because it isn't very school appropriate. There are also technical limitations because we would need to cast at least 5+ actors to make the film realistic, which is hard to do given the short timeframe and the nonexistent budget.

3. The Chef:      Genre: Horror/ Comedy
A silent film about an upscale chef who feeds human meat to unknowing high-class restaurant patrons.  The film would be heavily reliant on visuals and probably include some themes about wealth inequality or something along the lines of that.

Shoutout to Ratatouille for the inspiration.

Pacing Ourselves

Creating a short film is a long and arduous process that requires an enormous amount of planning to ensure things come out smoothly. I understand this very well and created a general schedule to make sure my partner and I pace ourselves well to meet the deadline.

Week 1 - I figured the first week we focus on brainstorming and researching different genres and playing around with different story ideas. 

Week 2 - The second week we should focus on writing our script and then figure out how we plan on casting for the film. 

Week 3 - The third week we need to focus on creating our mise-en-scène, which means location scouting, designing sets, finding props. We also need to create a detailed shooting schedule to ensure we move as efficiently as possible during the days we decide to shoot our film.

Week 4 - The fourth week includes shooting and editing the piece together as well as creating title designs and credit designs. 

Week 5 - The fifth week is dedicated to developing a score or working on sound in general and creating the other components of the portfolio project. 

Week 6 - The last week is solely for us to work on our Creative Critical Reflections. 

Normally films around 5 minutes need way more time to develop ideas and deliver a final product, but I am pretty confident that we can pull something decent together given the short timeframe. 

The Wonder Paws Fiasco

*title is a complete lie*

For about a month and a half before this, I worked in a group with three other dumplings to develop a marketing campaign for a local animal rescue called Wonder Paws.

Wonder Paws needed us to create a marketing strategy that would help them get more funding, and we complied with their orders.

We rebranded their website to be a little more inviting. Before, they had a very harsh logo and color palette that was a little too cold and heartless for the message of care and love they wanted to communicate. We did extensive research on other organizations like the ASPCA and Petco Foundation to figure out a way to make the brand a little friendlier and efficient for fundraising.

One thing I did specifically was change up their website completely. Before they had really extensive and confusing tabs, which I changed to be easier for users to navigate the site. This change would most likely make it easier to adopt and to understand the company's message. I also added a large donate button, which I considered to be my greatest addition to the campaign. I got the idea after researching political candidates for another project. If anyone knows how to raise money, it's American politicians, so  I knew this would be a perfect way for the organization to make it easier for users to donate to the cause.

Aside from website redesign, we created a boatload of branded content for social media, which will probably be essential for Wonder Paws to share their rescue efforts to the world. I created an Instagram story advert disguised as a cute cat video, which I felt would be an interesting approach to get viewers more attached to Wonder Paws' cause.

Completing this campaign for Wonder Paws will definitely aid me with this project because it helped me start developing my marketing skills, which will prove to be essential for this new project.

New Year, Same Me... but not really

A lot has happened since I last posted here... I'm kidding. Absolutely nothing has changed. My existence is limited to only the words in this blog.

On a moderately serious note, the transition from AS-Level to A-Level has been very very smooth. I didn't get the score I aimed for on the final exam, which was a huge bummer, but I rarely give up on things. I am going to get an A on the final grade, just watch. The haters really be praying on my downfall, but I will prove them wrong.

I think I have grown a lot as a person and as a filmmaker since the last blog. Watching myself in that CCR is incredibly strange because even though I look exactly the same and maybe act the same, I underwent a profound spiritual journey since my last post. My outlook on life has completely shifted because of some personal events that have turned my life upside down in many ways.

I'm quite excited for this portfolio project. I am planning on taking this project quite serious like it's kind of an introduction to my actual career. I want to actually be able to take it to some festivals, market it better, and add a higher degree of professionalism to the short film. I've made a couple short films in the past, so I'm not necessarily having to learn any basics of production. I'm tweaking as much as I can given limitations like time, budget, love, etc.

That being said, there is a huge marketing and distribution component to this project that I really want to execute well. Usually my films live and die on Vimeo or Youtube, but now I have to figure out how to reach way more people. That's definitely going to be the biggest challenge: creating a film that I am proud of while managing a campaign to make it reach a larger audience.

Thank you for joining me on this journey.