Audio

      Since the scene is pretty dialogue-centric and grounded in reality, I want there to be little audio outside of the discussion. I think having too much non-diegetic audio would take the watcher away from what is happening, so the majority of the audio will be able to be heard by the characters and any music I play in the opening must have a source.

Vomit (I know, ew)

     First and foremost, one thing that's been plaguing my mind is how the vomit sound effect is going to work. Nothing will be shown and we'll only hear the sound from outside the bathroom door, but I really want it to sound good since it's the most climactic scene in the introduction. I have a couple options:

Option 1: Find a fake sound effect online. This would be really easy if I can find a good effect. This also unfortunately involves sifting through tons of vomit sounds, and I have to find one that works spatially for exactly what the shot shows, so that might be difficult.

Option 2: Foley! This one's a bit less easy but will create a more convincing sound since it actually exists in the space. I could use something like oatmeal, but it would feel wasteful, and I can't think of something I could flush down the toilet that's not a food, but this one's a "maybe".

Option 3: Change up the scene so I don't need to make an effect. Maybe Marina put her hands under her mouth to be quieter. This not only removes the need for super realistic sound effect, but it also reinforces what I want to do with the opening, which is create sympathy for Marina and separate her from the disorder that hurts her. Not hearing the visceral sounds would have less of a gross-out effect. However, if it's not heard, it might be unclear to the audience what is happening, so I need to make sure that it is evident.

Music

     I still don't know if I even want music in the opening, so I'll see what post-production me thinks, but for now I have a list of songs I think I could use for either the end portion or the beginning when she's talking with Daria. As you might've figured, I want Marina to have a bit of a 60s vibe, so most of the songs here will either be from that time or have that energy.

What's So Sweet About Sweet Sixteen - The Ronettes (My top pick!)

Sweet Sugar Sweet - Bernadette Carroll (Second pick)

Please Eat - Nicole Dollanganger

Cry - Lesley Gore

I Don't Wanna Be a Loser - Lesley Gore

Candy Says - The Velvet Underground

Character Development: Marina

     Unfortunately, Marina is a very relatable character to me. While it doesn’t help my social life, it certiantly will help for making this opening.

     Marina, in the opening scene, hasn’t yet let bulimia take over her life. Even still, she’s shy and prefers to be on her own. Although she is nice, she doesn’t have many friends and doesn’t go out of her way to make them. Due to her shyness, Marina rarely talks and feels uncomfortable speaking around new people. She is closest with her sister, who has an extensive social life outside of Marina, so she often feels like she’s never anyone’s first choice. Later in the movie, this will lead to her trying to find a romantic connection and putting herself in danger to feel desired, but right now this only manifests in her early stages of the disorder. 

Moodboard: Marina

Mise-en-scène: Costuming

     I haven't actually thought about how I will costume my characters too much. However, seeing as production starts next week, it's something I need to get to doing. Me and my own sister will be playing Marina and Daria respectively, and I want to be at least a bit inspired by our own wardrobes since I don't have money to buy more clothes. This doesn't mean that they won't be thought out, just that I'm a bit restricted in my choices. 

Marina

     Marina is my main character, played by me. Marina is a shy person, and I want that to reflect in her clothing choices.

     My first thought for her outfit in the beginning is glasses, bangs, and a big black sweater. This will show her insecurity and obscure parts of her body which is exactly what Marina would want to do. In the bathroom scene, she will be wearing a tank top. During these moments she feels freer and like she is in control, so I want her to look more confident in less covering clothing. Also, in the bathroom scene, her glasses will be off and she will put them back on before going back to her room, symbolically concealing her illness.

     Marina's makeup wouldn't be too intense since she's still shy, but she would wear messy eyeliner that obscures her face more. Her symbolic color is blue, so she will be wearing blue eyeshadow as well, but it won't be too fancy.

     If this were to be a full film, I'd slowly start costuming her in different clothing and makeup as she tries to be more attractive to others, and at the end I'd show her in her own unique style without outside pressures to look a certain way.

Daria

     Daria is Marina's older sister, played by my own sister. She's a lot more confident than Marina and I immediately knew I wanted that to show in their costumes, so I want to costume her in a tank top and jeans. Since her color is pink, she'll wear a pink tank top. She will also wear gold jewelry. This decision was easy for me since I saw my sister in this exact outfit a few days ago and knew it would be perfect for Daria.

     Daria's makeup will be a lot more put together to further contrast Marina, and she will use base products to make it look more natural and nice. There could be more blush than usual to accentuate the pink in her color pallet and also make it show more on camera. Daria’s style is a lot more modern and fluid, showing that she makes the choices of what to wear based on what she likes, not based on what will hide herself.

     

a VERY rough sketch of their outfits
(Marina, Daria)

Script

Here's my script for Pearly Whites!

Click here: Pearly Whites

     Today I was approached by my teacher, where she told me that my subject was "good, but really dark." Hearing my classmate's stories about abusive parents and murderers, it felt a little strange that my project was singled out. 

     When I would talk to people about my own experiences, they seem grossed out, and it hurt. When I asked someone why, they said that the pure hatred of your body required to do something like that to yourself is hard to think about. It makes sense, but it made me feel pretty weird to think about my struggles in the light of someone hearing about them, and I realized for the first time that it really was a horrible thing to bear witness to.

     Through this light, I realize that viscerally showing a character's purges would rely too much on shock to get the point across, and focusing on the mental and physical aspect of it will humanize Marina and make her a character with an illness, not the embodiment of the illness itself.

     Since I don't just want to show some girl throwing up over and over (I'm not Lucifer Valentine), in order to make this film less centric about the physical purging aspect of bulimia, I will not show any vomit in the intro at all, nor would I show any in the rest of the movie were I to create it.
     While the movie centers around this aspect of her life, I want to show how it affects one's life outside of it. How it drives you away from gatherings, how you scan the menu for the lowest-calorie item, and how people comment on your body constantly. I also would want to show recovery- feeling like you can enjoy parties again, regaining strength and health, and the feeling when you eat something and realize you didn't even glance at the nutrition label. These seem like insignificant victories, but they're incredibly important.

     So, in conclusion, I want to clear up something. I did not pick this topic to be a shock factor, I do not want to create a disturbing film, and I don't want Marina to be a disturbing character. I don't want her illness to define her. I've noticed that, more than other eating disorders, bulimia is seen as something unspeakable, and there's hardly any solid representation in the media. As someone who's seen disordered eating firsthand in the people closest to me, this is a close topic to my heart, and I would not want to do it an injustice. Thank you!

     P.S. I'm good and the people close to me I mentioned are also completely fine!!!

Mise-en-scène: Props

     There won't be too many props in my introduction, but the ones that are shown will be important, so I want to make sure I get them all to look good. If the props are off, then the production will look cheap, and I don't want that at all.

      I've decided that the girls Marina and Daria will be represented by the colors blue and pink respectively. This works well since my bedroom has mostly blue and pink with purple walls. My bathroom walls are also green, a color which is mixed with blue and completely excludes pink. The props should also reflect this color scheme, and will be a big factor when I think about props.

Cake

     If you've read my plot summary, you know that in the intro there is a very important birthday cake in my opening. Since it will be in a lot of shots paralleling the sisters, I need it to be decorated well, and since I want to show their closeness, it should be colored in a way that is representative of both of the girls. 

     This means that the cake should be blue and pink as well, so ideally it would have those colors. While the frosting is undecided, the flavor of the cake will definitely be vanilla. Vanilla cake is seen as more delicate in comparison to flavors like chocolate, so it will contrast the scene and make the viewer see Marina's eating in a different light.

(picture)

     Another option would be a white frosted red velvet cake. It would look a lot more uncomfortable when Marina eats it with her hands since it's red, which could be interesting, but I don't want the scene to be scary as much as sad.

     I barely considered getting chocolate since it would look too much like the scene in Matilda where the kid is forced to eat the chocolate cake, and I don't want Marina to look like that at all. It's a sad and slightly uneasy scene, not a comedic or shock one. 

Glasses

     Marina will wear glasses at home. My mom, sister, and I all have blue light glasses and my mom has reading glasses, so I have a couple options. One of the glasses is red with a thin frame, a few are black with a normal frame, and the one I have is brown with a big frame.

     I chose the brown ones for Marina since the bigger frame would cover more of her face, but also accentuate her eyes which will let us see her emotions more clearly than the other frames would. It also won't cover her blue eye makeup, and since blue is most of her color pallet, it's important that it's shown on her in the introduction.

Research: Cultivation Theory

Cultivation Theory and Eating Disorder Stereotypes

     Cultivation theory states that a consumer’s views are shaped through repeated exposure to media. This can develop stereotypes about groups of people that aren’t necessarily true, and my film aims to combat this.

     The common stereotype for an eating disorder is a young girl who is thin, white, and beautiful. Even in the deepest parts of her disorder she still looks very put together, and she almost always has anorexia or another restrictive disorder. This leaves out the massive population of disordered individuals who are male, POC, not thin, or have binging disorders, and misrepresents the disorder as a whole. Showing these beautiful waif-thin women politely refusing to eat and garnering respect from others is not representation and only encourages the behavior.

       The article, “Are Movies About Eating Disorders Fundamentally Uncinematic,” does an incredible job talking about this subject and points out how hard it is to portray eating disorders correctly on the big screen. 

 “ The reality of eating disorders does not lend itself well to script material—leading Hollywood to gloss over some of these diseases’ deepest pains, and foreground unrepresentative characters. “ - Elizabeth King

     King also states,

“ A movie candidly depicting eating disorders, then, would involve little dialogue and a lot of repetition—elements that are worth experimenting with, but might not lead to box-office success. “

     This gives another reason, besides easy stereotyping, behind how eating disorders are misrepresented in the media. Cultivation theory tells us that eating disorders are romantic and for young and beautiful women, which not trut. Eating disorders are ugly.  They’re not pretty, They’re not romantic or aesthetic, they’re an incredibly isolating experience that takes over your entire life. This is what Hollywood fails to show, this is what the masses don’t see, and this is what I want to portray in my opening. Not the stereotype that’s pushed onto consumers making them think that it’s less serious than it is.

Storyboard

     I finished my storyboard! The script will be posted at a later date, but I already know the basics of the dialogue and there isn’t too much.

Storyboard:

     Since I’m here, I also thought it’d be a good place to put all of my cinematic references. There’s a lot of older movies here (with the exception of Insatiable) and French cinema, which I’ve been watching more of recently and taking inspiration.

Inspiration:

Suicide Club (2001)

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)

Overthinker, Artur Halka

Insatiable (2018)

La Femme de L’Aviateur (1981)

Les Biches (1968)

Film Summary: Pearly Whites

     My film idea, Pearly Whites, will be about a woman named Marina and her adult and teenaged self as she struggles with mental illness and bulimia through the decades. It will show her childhood, initial issues, struggles, relapses, and eventual recovery after she finds peace within herself. The film name comes from the fact that consistent throwing up causes tooth erosion, and the physical effects of eating disorders, besides excessive weight loss, are often ignored.

     The opening of the movie, what I will be filming, will show her as a teenager on her 16th birthday as she blows the candles out on her cake. Her sister Daria claps, and disorienting shots are used to show her cutting the cake and placing a slice in front of her. She initially tries to dodge eating it, saying that she'll eat later, but her sister insists, so she takes a bite. She says that it's good through her sadness. Some time later at night, when the house is dark and quiet, there are muffled sounds from the bathroom and she is seen throwing up. She wipes her mouth and washes her face, staring at herself in the mirror, before going to her room.

     The first part of the movie shows her high school years as she struggles. A big theme within the movie is how underrepresented bulimia is as a disorder and how stigmatized it is, so she rarely opens up about it- and when she does, it's not taken well. 

     As she grows, the new stresses of adult life make it harder and harder to stop her destructive behaviors, and she loses touch with her sister. The movie reaches the climax when she has to have dental surgery which causes her to reconnect with her sister and they talk about their lives and how they drifted apart. Marina joins a support group, and seeing the people in her life that love her and how everyone in the group shares her struggles, she decides to take the steps to recovery.

     The end of the movie shows Marina at the support group, now in her 40s, leading the discussion. She sees a younger girl listening in on the conversation and approaches her, telling her that she also used to have an eating disorder and that things do get better, but the road to recovery is not always easy and she needs others for support. The girl smiles and decides to join the group, and Marina is happy that she was able to help a younger girl even though many of the people in her life failed her.

Group Meeting #1

2/10/25 - Group Meeting #1

      In today's group meeting, all of us went around and discussed our ideas for the movie, and then discussed various other movies we had seen that we can use for inspiration. Everyone's ideas were really unique and gave me a lot of ideas for my own opening. One idea in particular I really liked was Ryan's. It was also a psychological drama but it was about a girl in a Christian family who lost her mom, and a lot of the ideas he had for the intro were really good ones that I might take inspiration from. I also got the opportunity to tell other people my idea, and they said it was interesting, so I'll take that as a good sign.

     I also got to check out everyone's blogs, which gave me a good idea of how much other people are writing and how much I should be. Most people were writing in my range, but a few posts I saw had much more elaboration, and my teacher told all of us to stick to "description/analysis/reflection" for our posts, which let me know I should be writing more.

The group (and my hand)

     All in all, this was an important moment which gave me a lot of insight into what I should do for my own project. Even if we may have gotten off-track a few times, it was still really helpful to hear about others' projects and get advice for my own.

Research: Mental Illness in Girl, Interrupted

     Mental Illness in Film: Girl, Interrupted

     Girl, Interrupted, based on the book by the same name, tells the story of a woman and her stay at a mental hospital for 18 months. The woman, Susanna Kaysen, suffers from depression and borderline personality disorder as well as frequent dissacociation. During her stay, she meets many other girls who suffer from other disorders, such as schizophrenia, anorexia, bulimia, and sociopathy.

     During the introduction, we see a flash of what is to come by the end of the movie, before starting the story at its beginning. As we go through the film, we see more of Susanna’s overall disconnection with time and the way that her mind wanders into memories through her frequent flashbacks of past relationships. This, along with the introduction being in the future, elucidates the idea that she is not grounded using film techniques. I think the idea of having the end of the movie be in the beginning is a brilliant idea, one that was also used in the movie Arrival, but I would rather show the past through flashbacks throughout the movie to showcase my character’s illness.

     Mental illness is often presented as something to be afraid of, especially personality disorders or psychosis disorders. While some of the characters Susanna meets in the hospital are violent and angry, they are also depicted struggling and crying, showing the other side of their issues that are often ignored.

Lisa, a girl diagnosed with sociopathy

Janet, a girl diagnosed with anorexia

     Some of the patients are also quiet and likeable people despite having stigma attatched to their issues.

Polly, a girl with facial scarring from self-immolation

Many patients, including Susanna herself, don’t have “visible” mental issues, showing how hypocritical people are when deciding who to put under the microscope.

Susanna Kaysen

     All of these cases show how diverse the image of mental illness can be and how one size does not fit all. This is a film that not only was a big inspiration for the movie, but taught me these things that I need to keep in mind while making my film to avoid any kind of harmful stereotyping or misrepresentation.

Research: Film Openings

 Girl, Interrupted

     Girl, Interrupted, one of my favorite books and movies of all time, was a massive influence when coming up with this project. The introduction, which shows Susanna and Lisa by the end of the movie, is an unconventional approach, but I want to take inspiration from the dark color pallet and the overall tragic nature of the scene.

     While researching this opening, I found a really good youtube video analyzing it and breaking down every choice made in creating the intro. 

     One idea I really like is the fact that in the intro, we can see broken glass and a syringe on the floor that we don’t yet know the meaning of. Even though I’m still playing with ideas, I think it’s a good idea to have some kind of ambiguity about what happened to my character in the introduction, which would be known by the end of the film. 

Donnie Darko

     The introduction to Donnie Darko is similar to the one in Girl Interrupted because of how there is an element of mystery as to what happened, but it differs because it focuses much more on establishing the setting rather than maintaining that mystery.

     The scene showing him biking through the unassuming town paired with the mysterious introduction sets us up with the idea that he is both literally and metaphorically distant from the people in the town, a theme I want to carry into my own opening.

Happiness

     Happiness is another incredible movie, and the opening scene is, in my opinion, equally good. The use of very few types of shots shows the introduction as it is, in all its awkwardness, as one of the main characters breaks up with someone she’s been seeing. 

     The lack of music in the clip also works to highlight the dialogue, letting us not only laugh at the absurdity of the scene, but also give us insight into both of the characters personalities. Having a very dialogue centric opening would be an interesting idea for the opening I want to create.

     

Research: Credit Sequence

The Eternal Daughter

https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-eternal-daughter/

     The title sequence of The Eternal Daughter has a much older and gothic energy to it. It shows a background of simply trees and a gray sky while the text flashes over it. While I do really like how it looks, I don’t think it would fit the vibe I am going for for my project. However, I might use the font or at least take inspiration and find a gothic font to use for the names listed.

Mr. Holland’s Opus

https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/mr-hollands-opus/

     Mr. Holland’s Opus shows a man playing piano and pretending to conduct, focusing heavily on the music while the cast is put overhead. One thing I really liked in this introduction is that the camera shot inside the man’s house is continuously moving, before showing the outside of his house. This not only establishes the man as a character who is passionate about music, but also shows us the setting while providing the credits in the corner.

Se7en

     This credit sequence is very good in my opinion. I really like how the font looks and how the glitches are done, as well as the quick cuts among seemingly random objects. This sequence is very focused on the editing rather than the shots themselves, which is the opposite of Mr. Holland’s Opus. It also shows the tone of the film instantly, which I definitely want to do for my opening.

Schedule

     Starting now, I have 7 weeks to finish this project. In that time, I have to plan, storyboard, shoot, and edit the entire film opening, and I've learned time and time again that sticking to a schedule is key to completing things on time. 

Week 1: DONE

- Pick genres and get inspiration

Week 2 (2/3-2/9)

- Analyze film openings & credit sequences critically 

- Research the genre (Drama) more in depth

     - Watch movies for inspiration (Black Swan, Smile, Mysterious Skin, Donnie Darko)

Week 3 (2/10-2/16)

- Research media theories

- Pick one project idea

- Create script

- Create storyboard

Week 4 (2/17-2/23)

- Plan out mise-en-scene elements (setting, props, costumes etc.)

- Plan out character development

- Plan out audio

Week 5 (2/24-3/2)

- Begin production (filming, editing, sound, etc)

- Elaborate on mise-en-scene elements

Week 6 (3/3-3/9)

- Finish production

- Begin post-production

- Begin CCR Q1

     - How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

Week 7 (3/10-3/16)

- Continue researching CCR

     - How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

     - How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

     - How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware, and online- in this project?

Week 8 (3/17-3/25)

- CCR Production and post-production

- Post final CCR and film opening

- Final reflection on project

Genre Research: Drama & Romance

Drama

     Drama is the genre all about emotions. It is about the complexities of life and how we deal with them. Naturally, it is a very encompassing genre, but the main focus is ordinary people, people who you could see as a friend or neighbor, dealing with life as a whole. 

Themes

     While there are tons of variations for what a Drama film could discuss, it is typically about life events and how they affect people. They may take place in any setting, but tend to focus on familiar environments like home, work, or school. They can also discuss all kinds of topics- mental illness, drug abuse, racial prejudice, assault, political issues, and religion to name a few. 

Requiem For A Dream (2000), a psychological drama film about drug abuse

Characters

     The main characters are not perfect people. In a drama film, you are meant to see them at their best and their worst, flaws and all, and make your own judgement about them. A drama film will show us all parts of a character to make us sympathize with them and although we may not like them, we are meant to understand their struggle. Sometimes times these movies are about a real person’s life, such as Priscilla (2023).

Priscilla (2022), a biopic about Priscilla Presley’s life

Obstacles

     The struggles of these characters are often not physical ones. Most of what makes a film a drama is having emotional problems, so even if there are physical problems like in All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) or Zodiac (2007), the film focuses on how those things impact the emotional state of people.

All Quiet On The Western Front (2022), a war drama about World War 1

Zodiac (2007), a crime drama about the notorious Zodiac Killer

Romance

    Romance as a genre is iconic. Love is the focus of a romance film, and humans love to hear about love. Many criticize the genre as being cheesy or cliche, but there is a lot more to romance than just “then they got married and lived happily ever after.”

Themes

    Romance explores love and everything to do with it, including intimacy, connection, loss, and passion between people. Romantic films often take place at school, work, or other places where interactions with others take place, but subgenres like historical romance show that they can take place anywhere. While many of these films end with the two subjects ending up together at the end, many of them also end in heartbreak or tragedy, such as Titanic (1997).

Titanic (1997)

Characters

    A romance movie typically revolves around someone who feels unfulfilled in their day to day life, and someone who helps them rediscover their passion for it or achieve their goals, both of them falling in love in the process. There’s many “stock characters” that are used in this genre that may make people write it off as cliche, such as the “secret billionaire” Nick Young from Crazy Rich Asians (2018), or the “manic pixie dream girl” character (which I could honestly write a thesis about) Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010).

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010)

Obstacles

    There are so many different obstacles that two characters can face when it comes to love. There could be a love triangle, such as It Ends With Us (2024). Maybe the two characters are homosexual in an area where same-sex relationships are considered wrong, like Brokeback Mountain (2005). The characters could even start out hating eachother before slowly falling in love, like in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). Whatever the case may be, there are plenty of ways a relationship can be sabotaged, and the watcher is left to wonder if love will endure.

It Ends With Us (2024)

Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film that is too sad for its own good

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Cambridge Portfolio Project

     Hello! From this post on, all posts will be in reference to the Cambridge Portfolio Project. I am so excited to start this journey and we have done lots of research in class, so I feel prepared enough to create my own project. While I am nervous to start since I know it will be a lot of work, I also know it will be an amazing experience that will not only prepare me for Broward College Academy next year but also broaden my horizons and even expand my career opportunities.

     For this project, I definitely want to go for a darker and more emotional theme. My initial ideas were centered around sad films with colorful backdrops that I had seen, such as Happiness or The Florida Project. For what I want the introduction to accomplish, I would like to have it introduce the main character and set the tone for the rest of the film. I know my ideas are pretty vague so far, but I’ve been honing in on a couple topics that I’m really excited to explore with upcoming blog posts. Thank you so much!